DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Visas, sham courses and bogus students
Each year Britain admits more than 300,000 young people from outside the EU on student visas.
Most work hard, obtain their qualifications, and go home. They enrich the diversity of academic life in this country and the £2.5billion they pay in tuition fees is enthusiastically welcomed by hard-pressed universities and colleges.
In recent years however, it’s clear a substantial number – probably tens of thousands a year – are economic migrants seeking a back door into the UK.
London Metropolitan University: A damning Government study suggested few of its overseas students were attending lectures
They come to find jobs, not to study, and have no intention of leaving again. With the collusion of bogus or unscrupulous colleges, they make a mockery of Britain’s criminally lax border controls.
Last year, after a decade of Labour complacency, the Government began to close this loophole, shutting 460 ‘colleges’ – some just rooms above fast food outlets – that offered sham courses.
But this week saw an unprecedented escalation of the campaign – the revoking of London Metropolitan University’s licence to recruit foreign students, and the possible deportation of 2,600 already enrolled on its courses.
London Met is not some spurious façade created simply to provide fake credentials to migrant workers. It is a mainstream, centrally-funded, state institution.
Yet a quarter of its foreign students were without a valid visa, more than half were failing to attend lectures and tutorials, and 40 per cent had not demonstrated a basic command of English.
Two other universities are also said to be under investigation.
Share this article
Predictably, the higher education establishment is in uproar. A University and College Union spokesman said: ‘The message that the UK deports foreign students will reach all corners of the globe.’
But isn’t this exactly the message the Government should be sending out?
New figures show net migration remains stubbornly above 200,000 a year, putting pressure on housing and public services. Many came on educational visas.
Genuine foreign students have nothing to fear, but fakes must be rooted out, and universities have a duty to expose them.
If they turn a blind eye for cynical financial reasons, are they really any better than those sham colleges which are merely a front for illegal immigration?
Reform or just PR?
Antony Jenkins, the new chief executive of Barclays PLC
The appointment of retail specialist Antony Jenkins as chief executive of Barclays signals the bank’s attempt to distance itself from the ‘casino’ investment banking which has caused it such grief, and return to its high street roots.
Following the resignation of his predecessor Bob Diamond over the Libor scandal, and with the Serious Fraud Office investigating allegedly irregular payments to Qatari investors, the bank is desperate to restore its reputation.
However, Mr Jenkins has already said he will not hive off the bank’s investment arm to protect its retail business, which will lead many to question whether his appointment will truly bring radical change – or is simply an exercise in short-term pragmatic public relations.
Insult to injury
A former UK ambassador to Afghanistan spoke yesterday of his heartbreak at seeing wounded soldiers competing in the Paralympics and accused the Government of ‘betraying their legacy’.
The Taliban are sweeping back across the country and virtually every week sees another murderous attack on our troops by treacherous Afghan soldiers.
As military withdrawal approaches, a political solution is still nowhere in sight. Those Paralympic veterans did their jobs with selfless professionalism. Isn’t it time the politicians did the same?
Comments 0
Share what you think
No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards.
We are no longer accepting comments on this article.
