There was further news this week regarding the turbulent state of affairs that has gripped the UK’s student visa sector since the start of the year.

In case you have failed to keep tabs on this area of UK immigration, it has been fraught with stories and scandals involving the numbers entering the UK and those that are legitimate students – as opposed to those just entering the country to then either disappear or work illegally.

Earlier this year UK visas for students were suspended from Pakistan after something like a 400% increase on applications compared to the previous period. The previous government tried in vain to stop this area becoming anymore the target for abuse than it already was being. This included new rules being drawn up such as a proficiency in English being required in order to enroll as a overseas student. As you would suspect this was not taken very well by those colleges that only offer courses in English. They pragmatically declared the Government had wheeled their livelihoods to the knackers-yard, in such an economically weary time this was not a good sound-bite for the voting nation.

The fact was and remains that the rules governing this group of UK visas is constantly being updated, the last changes being January 2009 that were meant to cure all ills, yet there always manages to be loopholes or legholes that those aiming to enter the UK for whatever purpose other than the advertised type manage to climb through.

UK student visa numbers are up considerably, logic tells me that they could easily cross reference the number of university/college places to see if they have also increased – I suppose they must have done. Lets hope for a final solution on this, time is money government and every review is more public money that could be spent on other things, like…. air conditioning on the Northern line for example.