Immigration News

In tough new immigration rules due to be unveiled tomorrow, up to 100,000 students will be barred from Britain every year.

In the coalition governments bit to slash net migration from hundreds of thousands down to “tens of thousands,” only those wanting to study a degree will be handed a UK student visa.

There has been a rise in bogus colleges exploiting the system.

Better knowledge of the English language will have to be demonstrated and new rules will be much tougher on students bringing family members with them.

There has been a 40% rise in the number of bogus colleges and one in five people that came to Britain to study in 2004 were still in the UK.

The consultation will target tens of thousands of students that come to the UK every year to study below degree level.

130,000 students arrived from outside the EU in 2009 to study below degree level. The sum is almost half of the 280,000 given student visas.

Over 90,000 attended a private college to study GCSE’s and vocational qualifications.

The proposals tomorrow suggest restricting entry “only to those studying at degree level” with that exception of the top most reliable universities and colleges allowed to offer courses below degree level.

Under current student visa rules the applicant can only commence part-time employment for up to 20 hours per week, however Cabinet Ministers are in talks to reduce this.

Those students whose study is longer than six months can currently bring their dependents with them. Further restrictions as to when they can bring dependents with them will also be put in place.

The number of students coming to Britain from outside the EU is estimated to be cut to around 87,000 a year if ministers are to meet their pledge to cut overall immigration.

A Whitehall source said yesterday: “We cannot reduce net migration significantly without tackling abuse of the student visa route.

“We need to consider a number of ways of ensuring that students coming to the UK are genuinely coming as students and to institutions properly offering an education and providing a qualification.

“By introducing a system that is more selective and more robust, the Government is aiming to stamp out abuse while continuing to attract the top students to our top universities.”