Restrictions to work on students from abroad extended in crackdown on visa fraud
Students from non-EU countries at colleges that are publicly funded lose the privilege to be employed for not more than 10 hours weekly, matching a rule for the ones also in colleges that are funded privately
Foreign students in their thousands at colleges that are publicly funded are going to lose their rights to be employed while they are studying in Britain.
James Brokenshire the minister of immigration made the announcement on Monday that within the next half of the year students who are not citizens of the European Union who arrive to school at education colleges that are publicly funded will have their right to work for not more than 10 hours every week lost.
The “fresh visa fraud crackdown”, as has been described by the Home Office, is targeted at making sure that visas for students are utilized only for study and not as an illegal route to the job market of the country.
Additional measures are going to be implemented in autumn this year, comprising of:
A reduction in the duration of additional visas for education to two years from three years.
College students being prevented from applying to remain further on in Britain and get employed when they complete their course, except if they left the country first.
Further education students would be prevented from having their studies extended in Britain except if they get registered with an institution that has an official connection with a university.
At further education colleges in Britain the number of foreign students has drastically reduced in recent years from a high in 2011 of 110,000 to just 18,297 in the previous one year.
The drop is partially because of a tightening by Theresa May the home secretary in a strategy to bring down to 100,000 the annual net figures on migration.
Ministers state that the drop is equally caused by an initiative to bring down frauds involving visas and shut down many sham colleges that are privately funded.
The most recent changes also comprise restrictions on students from non-EU countries at colleges that are privately funded to those that are at colleges that are publicly funded. The estimates are that there could be almost 5,000 students that are not of EU origin schooling at colleges that are publicly funded, with a lot of them getting tuition for A-levels prior to applying to universities in Britain.
Brokenshire stated that there had been evidence of rising fraud at some colleges that are publicly funded and proof of advisers on immigration advertising visas for college as a way to get employed in Britain.
He stated that offenders of immigration wanted to sell unlawful access to the jobs market of the United Kingdom, and there were a lot of individuals who were ready to buy. He continued by stating that hardworking payers of tax who are assisting to pay for colleges that are publicly funded have the expectation that they are providing education that is of top quality, and not serving as an illegal route to a work visa in Britain.
A warning from the Association of Colleges stated that the measures of the government was a serious risk to restricting the ability of Britain to attract foreign student.
Martin Doel its chief executive stated that having international FE students prevented from continuing their studies in the United Kingdom once they had completed their studies was going to restrict the students’ progression to universities from colleges.
He stated further that international foundation year courses and A-levels represented study routes that were legitimate for international student with a lot of them eventually continuing to successfully finish degrees at universities that are ranked very high. By having this route to university blocked from further education, the government was going to cause a harm that was going to be long-term to the United Kingdom as a destination for international students and an urgent reconsideration was required for this policy.
He added further that the colleges possessed monitoring systems that were stringent for checking attendance and they were eager to look at any proof that they were being utilized as an illegal route for fake students.