In response to credibility interviews for international students rolled out by the UK Home Office, global higher education organisation INTO has produced a set of videos to help students prepare for what could be their first formal interview in English.
Posted along side other pre-arrival videos online at INTO TV, the videos depicting a “prepared” and a “not prepared” student are available for anyone to watch. To date they have received some 7,000 views.
“When it comes to a formal interview, which is what the Home Office is doing, it’s very difficult to get that message across in written guidance,” Peter Skillen, Immigration Compliance Officer at INTO University Partnerships told The PIE News.
INTO is looking to produce additional videos explaining how to register with police, sign up for a GP, open a bank account and how to make a successful Tier 4 application
“With this, students can watch the video and understand the actual experience they’re going to go through.”
For the video’s content, Skillen says INTO looked to similar videos preparing people for online job interviews telling them to dress smartly and be aware of what’s going on in the background.
The videos are being shown to students at INTO’s 14 partnership universities around the UK. Skillen added that universities who don’t partner with INTO have gotten in touch to share the videos with their students.
The UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) endorsed the videos at its annual conference last month saying that they offer a service the government isn’t providing.
“We felt that his was the Home Office’s responsibility to provide information about the interviews to any applicants applying for Tier 4 leave,” Duncan Lane, Director of Advice and Training at UKCISA told The PIE News. “That seems to be the responsible thing for the government to do. I’m not aware the Home Office has done anything directed to students.”
INTO also offers their students mock interviews to further prepare with native English speakers. It has had a 100% success rate with students who have then gone on to apply for a visa.
Due to the video’s popularity, INTO is looking to produce additional videos explaining how to register with police, sign up for a GP, open a bank account and how to make a successful Tier 4 application.
“Video is a medium that reaches younger students more effectively. It can be quite disengaging when you’re sitting there going through pages and pages, but it’s the little things that amount to the application being refused,” said Skillen.
To view the videos go here and enter the password INTOtv2013.
