Institutions that admit those hoping to “game the system” will fall foul of a revamped compliance system designed to deter non-genuine international students, the Home Office warned in a statement today.
It revealed that it had contacted some 306,000 students whose visas were due to expire since last summer – issuing a stark warning against making bogus asylum claims as a way to stay in the UK for longer. The policy was met with criticism when it was announced last September, with detractors accusing the Labour party of bowing to populist anti-immigration sentiment.
Its latest statement comes amid a wider crackdown on so-called visa abuse among international students coming to the UK, with universities now having to comply with more stringent compliance requirements.
Under the new basic compliance assessment (BCA) thresholds introduced this month, institutions must make sure their visa refusals stay below 5%, their course enrolment rate must reach at least 95% and course completion rates must reach at least 90%.
A new sliding scale of penalties will be introduced for those that fail to comply under the new Red, Amber, Green (RAG) rating system, where universities will be given their rating based on their lowest BCA score rather than an average of the three metrics.
The Home Office said it is “actively exploring new ways” to share data on visa decision-making with the sector “within a robust data protection framework” but did not elaborate on what this might look like. For months now, universities have raised concerns that visa refusal rates are rising despite a lack of transparency from UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) on how decisions are made.
It follows government concerns over the way it says study visas are being used in tandem with asylum claims as a backdoor into the UK.
The Home Office claimed today that asylum claims from work, study and tourist visas had reached 37% under the previous administration, with international student claims accounting for the largest share.
It added that student asylum claims had fallen by 30% in the past year “following tough action taken in partnership with the sector”.
In March, the government imposed a shock study visa “emergency brake” on four countries – Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sudan and Cameroon – over rising asylum claims from students hailing from those countries.
Critics at The PIE Live Europe slammed the move as an “arbitrary intervention”, while the UK’s international education champion Sir Steve smith warned that more countries were likely to be added to the ban.
Minister for migration and citizenship Mike Tapp stressed that the UK would “always welcome genuine students” and thanked the sector for its work in helping to bring down student asylum claimed.
“But our visa system must not be used as a backdoor to asylum and illegal working,” he said.
Tapp added that “those seeking to game the system should know we are watching – and won’t hesitate to act.”
The Home Office said that high drop-out rates among international students suggested that students had entered the illegal working economy rather than higher education, while it said that high visa rejection rate and low enrolment figures pointed to a lack of due diligence done on applicants.
Under the RAG system, institutions with a red rating will be restricted on how many international students they can recruit, as well as having to find a year-long action plan. Those that do not show improvement risk losing their student sponsor license.
What universities need from government is policy stability, transparent visa decision-making, and real-time data to act on emerging concerns
Malcolm Press, Universities UK
Universities UK president Malcolm Press said that the sector was “fully committed to protecting the integrity of the visa system and working in partnership with the Home Office”.
He pointed out the economic benefits of international education in the UK – worth an impressive £37 billion in export earnings – but warned that the country’s ability to remain a welcoming destination depended on “responding quickly to any risks of abuse”.
“What universities need from government is policy stability, transparent visa decision-making, and real-time data to act on emerging concerns,” he said. “The sector relies on international student income, and recent sharp declines have led to substantial cost-cutting and job losses. It is essential that we build a fair, stable, and transparent system that works in the national interest.”
Responding to the tightened BCA thresholds, the Russell Group universities suggested that several practical steps could help institutions and the government work together to stamp out bad recruitment practices in the sector.
It said that universities should be given live access to UKVI data on cases of document fraud, regional trends or agent behaviour so that they could track “deceptive behaviour” as it happens.
It further suggested that there should be a direct line for universities to report suspected fraud to the government, as well as calling for an increase to the current 10-year ban on re-entry in proven cases of fraud from students “while maintaining supportive messaging for genuine students”.
While it said that all 24 of its member institutions were “comfortably above” the new requirements, the group suggested that a “small minority of fraudulent or deceptive applications using false information could be undermining the integrity of the system”.
“Unless addressed robustly, there is a risk that isolated behaviours could lead to widespread blanket restrictions that will remove vital study opportunities for exceptionally talented individuals,” it warned.
Libby Hackett, chief executive of the Russell Group, said: “Attempts to obtain student visas by fraud and deception undermine trust in the system and we support efforts by both government and universities to prevent this. These attempts represent a small number of cases, but they risk undermining the opportunity for genuine, highly-qualified international students to study in the UK.”
She further said that the Russell Group strongly supported the government taking “proportionate action that is targeted at bad actors”.
“Universities also have their part to play. To continue welcoming genuine, talented students from across the world, universities must ensure they have effective and reliable processes to root out abuse,” she said. “We want to work with government to plug any current gaps, particularly the availability of real-time data about attempted fraud and emerging trends, to enable quicker action and the flexibility to share information between institutions to catch repeat offenders.”
