The Parliamentary Yearbook is currently gathering news items for major features in the next edition covering the UK education system and has been following closely the efforts of Government to provide a balance between the need to limit immigration and the economic benefit of overseas students coming to the UK

1. Student Immigration
The Parliamentary Yearbook is currently gathering news items for major features in
the next edition covering the UK education system and has been following closely the
efforts of Government to provide a balance between the need to limit immigration and
the economic benefit of overseas students coming to the UK
In the wake of the withdrawal of London Metropolitan University’s licence to sponsor
students from outside the EU, the Commons Public Accounts Committee today published its
Report: 'Immigration: Points Based System-Student Route'.
The Committee examined, on the basis of evidence from the Home Office and the UK
Border Agency, the implementation and management of the student route of the Points
Based System for immigration.
The Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:
"It is extraordinary that the UK Border Agency introduced its new points based system for
students before proper controls were in place to replace the old ones.
“The result of the Agency's poorly planned and ill-thought out course of action was chaos: an
immediate high level of abuse of the new system and a surge in the number of student visas.
In 2009 the number of migrants who abused the student route to work rather than study went
up by as much as 40,000 to 50,000.
“Since then, the Agency has been playing catch-up, continually adjusting the rules and
procedures in order to try and tackle abuse.
“The result has been to create a huge amount of bureaucracy for universities and an
increasingly complex system for students to navigate. A bad situation has been made worse
by the poor customer support being provided by the Agency.
“Genuine international students make a valuable contribution to life in the UK and to our
economy, and the Agency must reduce the burden on those students and institutions who
pose a low risk.
Despite the surge in the number of people abusing the student route, the Agency has not
done enough to remove those who are here illegally. Even where it has been told by
colleges that so-called students are not studying, it has been unacceptably slow to act.
“The Agency must take urgent enforcement action to remove them. This would also send a
message to other would-be migrants that the student route is not an easy option for those
with no intention of studying."
International students contribute significant economic benefit to the UK and provide an
important income stream for UK education institutions. There is tension though between the
twin goals of ensuring a flow of high quality students into the UK and ensuring and
maintaining public confidence in the immigration system. The Home Office, through the UK
Border Agency (the Agency), introduced Tier 4 of the Points Based System for student
immigration in March 2009 to control the entry of students from outside the European
Economic Area who come to the UK to study. Under Tier 4, students have to be sponsored
by an educational institution (sponsor) licensed by the Agency and responsibility for testing
whether applicants are likely to comply with their visa conditions has been transferred from
the Agency to the sponsor.

2. The Committee found that the Agency implemented the new system before proper controls
were in place. It removed the controls it relied on under the old system; primarily, intentions
testing and spot check interviews by entry clearance officers, before it had replaced them
with new checks and controls. The Agency did not make their secure electronic system,
which demonstrated that a student had been sponsored by a licensed sponsor, mandatory
until February 2010. In the meantime, the Agency had to rely on letters from sponsors, which
were easily forged. The Agency had also only visited 30 % of the education institutions it had
licensed as sponsors by March 2009 when it launched Tier 4. The controls gap enabled a
surge in student visas and, in 2009 an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 additional migrants came
to the UK to work rather than study.
After a poorly planned and ill-thought out implementation of Tier 4 in 2009, the Agency has
had to spend the subsequent three years amending rules and procedures in an effort to
reduce abuse. This constant change has made it very difficult and costly for students and
education institutions to keep up to date with the increasingly complex set of rules and
guidance that has emerged. The supporting advice and guidance offered by the Agency has
not been good enough. Furthermore, the Agency has not introduced ways to ease the
burden on those students and sponsors that can safely be considered low risk, potentially
damaging the benefits to the UK education sector.
The Agency has not taken sufficient action to deal with migrants abusing the student route.
The Agency took the decision to focus on controls over entry to the UK. It also decided to
prioritise removing individuals proven to be 'high harm', for example foreign national
prisoners. However, it should not be ignoring such large numbers of people living and
working in the UK illegally. Its approach also failed to capitalise on the benefit of high profile
removals as a disincentive to abuse of the route. The Agency has only belatedly been
removing the visas from those it knew were not studying. The Agency has not been following
up on those whose visas it knew had expired.
The Government expected that clamping down on abuse of student visas would play a part
in reducing net migration. However the measurement of net migration is still based on
inaccurate International Passenger Survey data. The e-Borders system for counting all
migrants in and out of the UK will not be in place fully until 2015 at the earliest. The
Committee noted that currently net migration figures include students, who generally stay in
the UK for less than 5 years and suggested that it would be more informative to also report
net migration statistics excluding students, as a number of other comparable countries do.
The Parliamentary Year book will continue to report on the progress of this and other anti-
piracy measures as we go through the months ahead.
Web: www.parliamentaryyearbook.co.uk
Email: parliamentaryyearbook@blakemedia.org
4th September 2012