Alan Travis, The Guardian Home Affairs Editor (see profile) reports the news in The Guardian online.
About 400 colleges – more than 20% of the sector – had their sponsorship revoked as they did not apply in time, and 51 had their licences revoked after the UK Border Agency investigated a spike in applications from south Asia just before the tougher English language tests came into force.
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The immigration minister, Damian Green, said: “Widespread abuse of the student visa system has gone on for too long and the changes we have made are beginning to bite. Too many students have come to the UK with the aim of getting work and bringing over family members.”
Nicola Dandridge of Universities UK, said it believed the government’s aim of reducing net migration to below 100,000 a year lay behind the curbs. “Universities UK believes that the number of international students coming into the country should be accounted for separately and not included in the definition of net migration for the purposes of government policy. International students are not economic migrants. They come to the UK to study and then they leave.”
Read the full report here in The Guardian online.
Source: The Guardian online
