Another policy review for student UK visas
August 02 2010 by Liam Clifford
Students in a classroom
A review of UK student visas is to be conducted after the number of applications approved by the UK Border Agency rose by a third in the past year.
Figures released by the Home Office showed that the number of students arriving in the UK from outside the EU have risen by more than 75’000 to just over 300’000. Immigration Minister, Damien Green, has announced that he will conduct a “thorough investigation” into the system to try and minimise abuse.
According to the results, some 313,011 non-EU students were granted visas in the twelve months prior to March, bringing with them 31,385 dependents. These numbers are a significant rise on the 235,295 students and 24,780 dependents that arrived in the UK during the previous year.
Mr Green said: “We are committed to attracting the brightest and the best to the UK, and welcome legitimate students coming here for study”. However, commenting on the significant levels of misuse that have plagued the UK immigration service, he announced that he would be undertaking a “thorough evaluation of the student system over the coming weeks and months” with the aim of tightening the system even further.
The move comes following a number of measures imposed by the UK Government to try and prevent abuse of the system. In February, the former Labour Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, announced new rules to try stopping students from using the system to remain in the UK illegally. Also earlier in the year, applications from students in Nepal and Pakistan were suspended after an unusually large rise in applications.
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