UKCISA has urged its members to step up support for international students who are concerned about licence suspensions and HTS revocations in the sector. It is encouraging institution to reassure students in the wake of the Home Office’s suspension of 57 private colleges and sanctioning of three universities due to alleged incidences of test fraud, explained Dominic Scott, UKCISA Chief Executive.
“[The scandal] could encourage institutions as a knee-jerk to put more and more resources into compliance,” he told The PIE News at UKCISA’s annual conference in Liverpool.
“The message from UKCISA is a lot of students are worried about whether they could be affected next, so we want them to put more resources into advice and support services,” he continued.
“For the next couple of months advice and support services are going to be critical, especially if there’s more blood on the carpet”
“For the next couple of months that’s going to be critical, especially if there’s more blood on the carpet – if some of those private colleges close.”
Opening the conference, Jonathan Portas, Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), also spoke about the need for a “more rational” immigration policy and the easing of post-study work restrictions.
Portas said that the education sector had suffered “collateral damage” as a result of the coalition government’s immigration policies, arguing that the target of bringing net migration down to tens of thousands seemed a “good idea at the time” but was no longer seen as such.
“The removal of Post Study Work did damage the UK economy,” he added.
UKCISA has a webpage specifically helping those with concerns around sponsor licences
A growing awareness of the importance of effective marketing in an increasingly competitive global market was also apparent, with Rebecca Hughes, head of Higher Education at the British Council, urging delegates to “keep raising the bar” in UK higher education, and to market themselves as welcoming to international students.
“Britain is quite a small country to be as influential as it is in higher education,” she said. “We have to work hard to preserve that.”
Educators are waiting to see what impact new immigration legislation passed into law in May, including the abolition of visa appeals, NHS surcharges for international students and mandatory checks by landlords into tenants’ immigration status, will have on the industry.
“We argued against some of these measures during the passage of the bill, but now it’s actually passed we have to wait for the government to come up with a plan,” said Scott.
He noted that most of the new measures will not come into force until late 2014 or early 2015.
The new legislation comes into force against the backdrop of new research by the PA Consulting Group showing that two-thirds of UK HE leaders consider government policies to be the biggest threat to their future success and less than one in ten think that reform is very likely to be a high priority following next year’s general election.
The survey also highlighted fears that withdrawal from the EU would present a “major and hugely damaging risk” for UK institutions and concerns about the possible impact any political faux pas with China could have on incoming student numbers.
