Blacklisted UK colleges take Border Agency to court Several UK colleges are taking the UK Border Agency to court after they were suspended from approving student visa applications. Since that action, which hit 142 institutions, the Border Agency has gone further - it has suspended all applications from northern India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Colleges include both private and …
As always intentions were good, but execution sucked. Noting new, if we consider it came from Home Office.
They should just require quite a good cash in advance as a deposit if somebody wants to study here. Easy. Charge 5-10k or so and suddenly it will become unprofitable to try to work illegally, as if they get caught, they will lose that deposit. Of course they should get deported also.
There are enough people from Central Europe to work here. They all have behaviour that is more compatible with UK one.
That comes from migrant from Central Europe...
Then you would have known that the UK Border Agency is filled with racists. One temp worker asked some of the staff what they thought of asylum seekers. The people replied that if they had their own way, then the asylum seekers would be brought outside and shot.
When the temp worker complained to the manager, then they all said that she was a liberal and ignored her.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/8496759.stm
Student visas are seen as a "foot in the door" for many folk who, in reality, want to be in the UK for reasons other than studying. There are several measures that could be taken to stop people taking the piss:
It is fairly obvious that courses running for several years leading to qualifications that are not recognised anywhere are bogus. Student visas should only be granted for courses that actually have some recognition with professional bodies and employers.
It is also obvious that offices on a single floor of a building are inadequate to house several colleges, each with a couple of hundred "students" - these places should be closed down. I once met a girl from Poland who, prior to Poland's entry into the EU, had spent seven years on an English course at one of these places in London. The reality was, she had never studied, was working illegally and was eventually deported.
Students should be required to provide their own healthcare insurance (as they are in Germany and other EU countries). Currently, anyone legally resident in the UK (i.e. a visa of more than six months e.g. Student Visa ) is entitled to free healthcare under the NHS. This encourages health tourism where people will bribe staff at educational institutions to put them on a course which they are not qualified to take - the aim being to get expensive treatment for a pre-existing condition.
Educational institutions should be fined if they cannot demonstrate some attempt to ensure that foreign students are qualified to take the course they applied for e.g. level of English for a degree course taught in English.
Think that hit the nail on the head. Many of the 'students' who vanish from the courses have found their way into the benefits system, and aren't working anymore. Or they've had their NHS treatment (need heavy surgery? Stuff that'd cost a huge sum? Get yourself a student visa, and have it free on the NHS for the princely sum of a few grand).
Many, no doubt simply return home for personal reasons, but there's a significant amount that don't.
Hmm. So, a whole department is filled with 'racists' from a headline that takes a sample of one person. Well done. Very scientific.
Reading that report is almost laughable. The accuser states that in her opinion (she was there for 3 months as a student) a family should have been able to stay, but legal sent them packing. Great, so she's now an expert on the legalities of immigration?
She does note that there were consummate professionals there, as well as people she didn't like (and branded racists) and were rude to her (interesting, wonder if she's also harangued them?). If things are truly that oppressive, no professionals would be in the department, merely "thugs", but that didn't seem to be the case. It came across that it was just her with an axe to grind, and a headline to make.
A wakeup call here. The world is not politically correct; life is inherently harsh. People try to get by with a little humour in situations that are hard. If decisions are made that are illegal, then it'll come to light, but from the article, it seems that nothing wrong had happened (apart from in her opinion as a social student, the legal department were wrong, and that a plastic gorilla was passed to the person who last approved an asylum seeker. Oh, an that people didn't like her and were rude to her).
So, now we have a new story that some people, oh woe, are not politically correct, and may be hostile to her opinions (which from the fact she's talking to the papers, it seems she has no wish to refrain from expressing) and they work in Immigration. This will eat up tens of thousands of pounds in investigations, take up countless hours of man time, reduce morale in an already beleagured department and in general take people away from concentrating on their job (likely meaning case examination will take even longer!).
This isn't whistle blowing (that would mean she'd taken legal advice on cases, found that the department was deliberately falsifying records and sending people away in contravention of internaltional and domestic laws). This is simply sour grapes and throwing a tantrum in front of the nanny state.
At least for once there is consensus across Governments agencies and departments.
You get pretty much the same response as per the anecdote above, irregardless as if you elicit a response from the HMRC, DWP, Police and Prison service.... the general consensus is at best most of thier "customers" (and oh! how they hate that word) that they are criminal, devient, fraudulent skiving, guilty, ne'er do wells , who should be taken out side and << insert mob justice option of choice>> .... then again they also think that about most of thier senior managers and whitehall/westmintser types!
WTF that is is beyond me. In the meantime fellow knocks up wifey and now has a kid born in UK, sprogged on the NHS, with a shot at the local infants school. Next stop an NI number to legitimise the cash in hand work he's been doing to afford life's little luxuries, while HMG picks up the tab for rent, gas and leccy*
BTW is this Keith lets-extend-the DNA-retention-period-for-theguilty-and-the-innocent Vaz?
*This description sounds like a Daily Heil rant. It is based on a specific case known to me. He has been taking the piss for some time.
Anon as incredibly some of my best friends are (and they'd like him chucked out as well).
>courses that actually have some recognition with professional bodies and employers
Tricky:
A BSc in Vitalistic medicine with crystal healing by the university of Westminster is approved by the Association of Homeopaths (http://www.dcscience.net/?p=227)
Who approves a Physics Phd at Cambridge?
A spokesman for the UKBA said: "...Not including state schools, this leaves 90 colleges that are currently suspended."
Colleges must be accredited by a private organisation, on behalf of the Borders Agency and then by the Home Office. The 142 suspended colleges..."
So which is it? 90 or 142? UKBA say 90, El Reg says 142 - where did the numbers come from?
The rules changed last year regarding colleges and student visas. This is the last stage in the governments plan to control immigration using a points system to qualify applicants. Tier 4 Visas are Students and Colleges.
The rules are now that there are two types of Student Visa: a Student Visitor Visa a for courses of 6 months or less and the Student Visa for longer courses for degrees and diplomas. With the Student Visitor visa no working is allowed and the course has to be paid for upfront and you have to show you have money for your upkeep.
The Student Visa allows work for up to 20hours a week (as is neccessary for many of our local students these days). However. As well as showing evidence that the fees have been paid to a college that has been inspected by one of the two agencies approved by the Border Agency, the applicant also has to show they have at least £800 a month for 9 months if they live in the London area, for their upkeep. This is part of the cunning plan to keep out the ne'er do wells intent on sponging off the largesse of the UK welfare system. Clearly that sort of money would buy a lot of health care in whatever impoverished country the applicants come from. Most of those that I have met have no idea that healthcare is free in the UK, With respect to health tourism, I had a friend who took advantage of this after he emigrated to the US, He made sure his wife flew back to the UK for the birth of his children so it would be paid for the UK, In the US it would have cost £10k a pop. But then he was an IT contractor, not some poor guy from a poor country, He knew how to play the system.
College fees in London are typically more £6,000 and the colleges don't give out the necessary certificate to get the visa unless the students cough up in advance in their own country. So we are talking serious money to come to the UK to study.
These are the stringent checks that some of the contriibutors here want to see in place. But there are problems. The Home Office is automating the system and this has led to a surge in applications to beat the deadline for paper submissions. Usually there is a big delay in getting computerised systems working and the colleges are no doubt anxious to prepare for that.
The colleges are trying to protect themselves, the inspection system has weeded out the bogus colleges that are little more than an office above a takeaway. but the legitamate colleges that have obeyed all the rules are starting to feel the pressure on their cash flow. Some are going out of business. Without a regular supply of students, their cash flow is effectively frozen.
What of the students? Most are utterly depressed. After coughing up a lot of cash to study in the UK, they face the prospect of their colleges going bust leaving them high and dry. They will get no refund and then the rules are that they have 60 days to find another college to accommodate them. Most have borrowed money from family or money lenders and their prospects on returning home early are unenviable. Many try to get part time jobs in the UK, but the face stiff competition. I have met some who have been ripped off, paid £20 a day for packing vegetables. They live in the cheapest places, many people sharing rooms, trying to stretch their funds until they can find a decent part time job. The places they live are often subject to harrassement by the authorities. Being woken up by the Border Agency robocops at 6am for a shakedown, passport inspection and watching people in the same house being bundled kicking and screaming into a police van is shocking. There are some serious rumbles of discontent in the foreign student community. There are many thousands of students who are feeling robbed and persecuted. This is not the way to treat people who contribute funds to the economy,
Also in the news are budget cuts to public colleges and universities. Some of which are on the edge of insolvency. A full 8% or £4Billion a year of the Education budget comes from foreign students but now that income has been stopped by the actions of the Border Agency.
I foresee and interesting spat between the Home Office and Ministry of Education.
I am Nepali student of Guildhall Collge. My college lost its licence as I (and my friends) expected. They are telling every student,parents and guardians they are going to get it back using 'powerful' lawyers.
(They can try removing Taliban from terrorist list using powerful lawyers! Justice is for sale in the UK)
I am student and I know oneday I was standing and studying in my 'lecture room' (size of toilet)for HND class.
Now Guildhall college Management fat-cats find another way to survive by taxing students who try to leave college. They charge many hundred pounds to issue termination.
As I am a hindu Nepali student I curse my college management for their bad karma.
all of our parents sold lands and gold to send us here to study. We came lost our studies and welfare.
Master survivours are Guildhall College Principal and his cronies.
Master Loosers are UK govt, BAC and others...
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