65 Colleges Licences Revoked, 600 Plus Students Removed or Detained

Last yearThe UK government revoked the licences of 54 plus private colleges, since then, according to Home Office sources more than 1,600 enforcement visits have been made and over 600 individuals have been served removal notices or detained in relation to curtailment of student visa matters

Amid upcoming elections the number one issue has become Immigration according to the recent opinion polls and pressure has flown down from political hierarchy to authorities such as UKVI to exercise more grip on Immigration, also additional measures has been introduced to crack down on bogus students which included recent measures such as mandatory landlord checks on tenants’ immigration status, which are currently being trialled in the West Midlands.

One of the trigger in this ongoing crack down is with fraud in English language testing system detected last year - now more than 33,725 invalid TOEIC test results have been reported by ETS Global to the Home Office, along with 22,694 questionable results – up from 19,000 and 29,000 respectively at the time of the original announcement and investigation.

Crack down on student visa scams is not unique to UK it is a common trend in many countries, in Australia the number of student visas cancelled by the Australian government has more than tripled in the last two years (according to The Australian that student visa cancellations more than doubled from 1,978 in 2012 to 4,940 in 2013, rising again to 7,061 in the last financial year) as instances of falsified test results and/or financial documents have soared, we reckon this trend is not only purely on irregularities on student front and private tier institutions but also stems largely from the popular dis comfort of Immigrants in the wider society thus has become a political issue

We at UKEducationForAll.com kindly urge that all Sponsors who take students from institutions whose licences have been revoked will need to undertake their normal compliance checks and there is no reason in principle why they should not accept such students who have not, individually, been found to be at fault

List of suspended or revoked colleges 2015 ( Updated Frequently)

List of suspended or revoked colleges as of 24th October, 2014

The UK government has revoked the licences of 54 private colleges as of 23rd October, 2014, in its investigation into immigration fraud launched in June. The institutions were among 57 centres to have their licences suspended by the Home Office (Refer our earlier post)

Simon Walker, director-general of the Institute of Directors, said he was "appalled" by how overseas students had been caught up in targets for reducing immigration into the UK. “Universities were victims of political point-scoring”, said Mr Walker.

We at UKEducationForAll.com kindly urge that all Sponsors who take students from institutions whose licences have been revoked will need to undertake their normal compliance checks and there is no reason in principle why they should not accept such students who have not, individually, been found to be at fault.

We like to emphasise that Institutions who have their licences revoked still have a duty of care in ensuring that their students complete their studies and we firmly expect that they will honour this and assist in making appropriate arrangements.

Students, who are still unclear or concerned about their immigration status should contact Home Office on 0114 207 1688 (UK) or 0044 114 207 1688 (outside UK) between 9:00am and 5:00pm, Monday to Friday and 9:00am to 1:00pm on Saturday.

The following Colleges can no longer recruit or teach international students (Licenses Revoked or Surrendered)

1. Alpha Meridian College – Revoked

2. APS Computer Solutions Ltd Trading As Pitman Training Centre Peterborough – Revoked

3. Birmingham Institute of Education Training and Technology – Revoked

4. Blake Hall College – Revoked

5. Bradford College of Management – Surrendered

6. Bradford Metropolitan College – Revoked

7. Bradford Regional College – Revoked

8. Bristol College of Accountancy – Revoked

9. Britain College – Surrendered

10.CAHRO Academy Ltd – Revoked

11.Central College London (a division of Huawen Institute) – Revoked

12.Central Cranbrook College – Revoked

13.Citizen 2000 Education Institute – Revoked

14.City of London Academy – Revoked

15.College of Advanced Studies – Revoked

16.College of East London – Revoked

17.College of Excellence Limited – Revoked

18.Essex College Ltd – Revoked

19.Eynsford College – Revoked

20.Forbes Graduate School – Revoked

21.Hammersmith Management College – Revoked

22.Helios International College – Revoked

23.Interlink College of Technology and Business Studies – Revoked

24.Katherine and King's College of London – Revoked

25.Kinnaird College – Revoked

26.LIT LON Ltd – Revoked

27.London Academy of Management and Business (LAMB) – Surrendered

28.London Churchill College – Surrendered

29.London College of Finance and Accounting – Revoked

30.London College of Business Management and Computing Studies –Surrendered

31.London Corporate College – Revoked

32.London Metropolitan College – Revoked

33.London Premier College Limited – Revoked

34.London Regal College – Revoked

35.London School of Marketing Trading As LS Business School – Revoked

36.London School of Technology – Revoked

37.London St. Andrew's College – Revoked

38.Manchester College of Management Sciences Limited – Revoked

39.Manchester International College – Revoked

40.Manchester Trinity College Limited – Revoked

41.Midlands Academy of Business and Technology – Revoked

42.North West College Reading – Revoked

43.Pharez UK Ltd Trading As Pharez College – Revoked

44.Queensbury College – Revoked

45.Radcliffe College – Revoked

46.Sanjari International College – Revoked

47.Shakespeare College – Revoked

48.Stanfords College UK Limited – Revoked

49.Superior College London – Revoked

50.UK Business Academy – Revoked

51.UK Vocational Training College Trading As UK College of Arts and

Technology – Revoked

52.Vernon Community College – Revoked

53.West George College – Revoked

54.West London Business College Ltd – Revoked

As at 23 October 15:00

Reference

List of suspended colleges in UK 2014

list of revoked colleges in UK 2014

List of suspended or revoked colleges as of 24th  October, 2014 ( Updated Frequently)

Home office crack down on Visa fraud

An estimated 48,000 immigrants may have fraudulently obtained English language certificates despite being unable to speak English, the government has said, Of the 48,000 certificates, 29,000 were invalidand 19,000 were "questionable". said Immigration Minister James Brokenshire.

Glyndwr University has lost its ‘highly trusted’ sponsor status after the test scores of more than 230 students it sponsored were identified as being invalid, while the University of West London (UWL) and the University of Bedfordshire have been barred from sponsoring new international students pending further investigations to decide whether they will also be suspended.

Nearly 300 overseas students at the private London School of Business and Finance (LSBF) worked and paid tax last year, with one student working 60 hours a week for six months.

In an investigation, HMRC found that some of the students were earning £ 20 000 per year despite rules preventing them from working 20 hours per week during term time.

“London campuses are home to a high proportion of international students, and QAA has been in discussions with the Home Office over the best way to protect their interests.”

In a latest development, The QAA, The Higher education watch dog has written to 14 universities about their London operations

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) is conducting an independent inquiry into higher education delivered via London branch campuses

Full list of universities included in the QAA inquiry:

Anglia Ruskin University
Bangor University
Coventry University
University of Cumbria
University of East Anglia
Glasgow Caledonian University
Glyndwr University
University of Liverpool
Loughborough University
Northumbria University
University of Sunderland
University of Ulster
University of Wales Trinity St David
University of South Wales


Full list of suspended colleges in 2014

The Student Visa Scandal - Fraud in Student Visa System Exposed

The Student Visa Scandal
Will broadcast in BBC One, Monday 10 February at 20:30 BST, by Richard Watson

"What Panorama has uncovered is extremely important, it's very shocking and I want to do something about it”

Home Secretary Theresa May

• The Home Office has suspended English language tests run by a major firm after BBC Panorama uncovered systematic fraud in the student visa system
  
• The Home Secretary said the government had suspended the two colleges (immigration consultancy called Studentway Education in Southall, West London and Eden College International in East London)
  
• All further English language tests done through ETS in the UK had also been suspended
  (ETS - One of the biggest English language testing companies in the world)
  
• Fake Bank documents: Undercover researchers were also sold fake bank details to show they had enough funds to stay in the UK
  
  

Courtesy: BBC, Video Link to the undercover footage  

Post Study Work Opportunities – An Australian Perspective

Post Study Work Opportunities – An Australian Perspective

The determination of the Home Office to reduce UK immigration, curtailing Post study work options may be hindering aspirations to attract more international students, but Australia’s newly elected government has no such hang-ups. Being the sixth biggest country in the world, Australia is the third most popular international student destination in the world according to OECD. It has become a rival country in terms of the market share of international students; more students are now opting to study in Australia than UK as post study work benefits are favourable in Australia

The Australian government has speeded issuing visas and extended “after study programes” such as post study work opportunities. Graduating Australians with bachelors' degrees can now stay for up to two years, those with a master's degree can stay for two or three years and those with doctorates can stay for upto four years

The Australian Coalition government plans to develop a national strategy for international education drawing on a report led by National Australia Bank chairman Michael Chaney and commissioned by the previous Labor government. It had predicted that international education could rebound to be worth over A$19 billion to Australia by the end of the decade. In UK, International students contribute approximately £10 billion a year to the economy according to the Department for Business Innovation and Skills.

Due to the increase of tuition fees, many UK degrees now cost around £ 9000. From 6 April 2012, Tier 1 (Post-study work) was closed to all International students – please refer our article ‘Post Study Work Visa......What Next? - Part II for more details. The sense of feeling unwelcome will probably drive away international students to Universities in the US, Australia and the rest of Europe.

It is evident that the Australian opening of new opportunities for Post Study work options will entice new international students whilst the draconian UK visa rules would indeed dissuade potential international students.