New UK student visa rules flush out fake colleges
May 14 2009 by Ranjan Chakraborty
UK student visa holders
The overhaul of the UK immigration system has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the number of approved educational institutions for UK student visa holders.
When the old UK visa system was in place, there were around 15,000 institutions that student visa applicants were using to support their requests for UK visas. The new system has, according to BBC News, slashed that number to just 1,500 approved institutions.
As part of the new points based sytem UK visa system, applicants for student visas must acquire sponsorship to study in Britain on a UK visa from an approved institution. In order to be approved, a college or university must apply for a sponsorship licence, and satisfy the government that they are a legitimate educational institution.
The reason for the crackdown is, of course, to identify and shut down the bogus institutions that overseas nationals had previously used to make UK student visa applications.
The Home Office released a statement on the subject, which said: "We have made it clear that we will not tolerate either the fraudulent applicants trying to abuse Britain's immigration rules, or the dodgy colleges that facilitate them."
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