Westminster Column 13 January 2010
13 January 2010
This week the Conservative Party announced proposals to tackle the problem of abuse of the student visa system.
For years now Labour have ignored warnings about abuses of the student visa system by people looking to find a way into the UK. The consequences include tens of thousands of bogus students in the UK; hundreds of unregulated colleges providing student visas but little education; and increasing security risks to this country.
Since 1998 there has been a three-fold increase in the number of student visas issued, with 236,470 visas granted in 2008/9 alone. Labour’s new, and supposedly improved, points based immigration system has in fact lead to an increase in successful applications whereby foreign students who were refused under the previous rules now gain entrance to the UK.
Currently, to qualify for a visa non-EU students show a letter of acceptance from sponsors – either an accredited college or university. However, there are 1,925 such organisations on the UK Boarder Agency’s approved list, a figure which does not correlate with the fact that there are only 165 universities and Higher Education colleges in the UK.
The Government's own chief immigration adviser has recently warned that tens of thousands of foreign students are graduating from colleges that are not “proper.”
It is now absolutely clear that not only is the student visa system one of the biggest loopholes in our border control, but that this Labour Government’s talk on dealing with the problem has amounted to nothing.
We have fake colleges still thriving and if Labour are re-elected, the problem will inevitably continue to get worse.
A Conservative Government would, amongst other proposals, introduce an annual limit on the numbers of economic migrants coming to Britain while attracting the best and brightest from around the world –international students contribute an estimated £8.5 billion to the UK economy each year and play a vital role in ensuring our universities remain at the top of their academic field.
But limits would be set to take account of the skills the country needs and the number of people with which services can cope. We would refine the current sponsor accreditation system, ensuring that, of institutions calling themselves ‘colleges’, only those registered with Companies House would be able to become a sponsor for foreign students.
We will ensure that greater attention is paid to applicants from particularly sensitive countries. This will include a review of the current practice of outsourcing visa applications to in-country agents and is especially important in terms of scrutinising the source of funding for applicants and ensuring face to face interviews.
The Conservative Party want to see a robust but responsive system, with clear rules enforced by competent specialists. Abuse of the student visa system as allowed by this Labour Government is not fair on genuine students, or on British taxpayers – and it has created a security loophole that must be closed
