NUS International Campaign's response to the new immigration rules for international students
What follows is the NUS International Campaign's response to the government's proposed changes to the immigration rules, as they effect international students.
The response has been sent to the Home Office, who have not yet gotten back to the National Union of Students on the issues raised. If unions have any queries, email Manishta Sunnia, and this will be forwarded to the Home Office of the UKBA. More details on the Immigration changes can be found on the UKBA website.
Dear sir/madam,
As you know, the statement of intent issued by the Home Office in respect of students under the points-based system (Tier 4) contains a number of important changes to the immigration rules for overseas students.
The National Union of Students (NUS) represents the interests of over seven million students in the UK, including many thousands of international students, and having consulted with our members we have some concerns and comments regarding the proposals which we would like addressed.
Attendance monitoring
NUS members are deeply concerned that the attendance monitoring requirements may have a damaging effect on recruitment of overseas students in the first place, and to the student experience of those who do come to study here.
Our principal concerns are:
- That institutions will abuse their responsibilities in the monitoring of attendance, in that staff with a grievance against a student could deliberately fail to register their attendance, or institutions could use the threat of failing to register the student's attendance to enforce payments of debts or similar;
- That even for legitimate institutions, they will create an administrative burden which at best will divert resources from teaching or support services, and at worst will be passed on to the student through increased tuition fees;
- That international students will be at risk of unnecessary investigation by the UKBA because of poor record keeping, clerical errors or deliberate omission on the part of the institution
- That oppressive monitoring will in any case create division between non-EU overseas students and those from the EU, as well as with overseas and home students more generally, and damage their impression of the UK and the outcomes mentioned in the foreword to the statement of intent.
Therefore we want the Home Office to seriously consider how these issues can be ameliorated and consideration of how students can be protected from potential abuse.
Applications
We are concerned about the inflexibility of the application process. The requirement for a student to have a named sponsoring institution means that if the student, for whatever reason, desires to change the institution they wish to study at, they must reapply for a visa. This extra cost and extra administration burden will potentially deter international students from applying in the first place.
We would also like clarification on the process should a student need to transfer institutions and reassurances that the cost of this will not be prohibitive to the student.
Identity Cards
NUS is vehemently opposed to compulsory ID cards for international students. Whilst there are a number of wider concerns about the integrity of data, and the civil liberties of the students involved, in the terms of this statement of intent our objection is financial. Not only do international students pay exorbitant tuition fees, and ever increasing fees for visa applications and renewals, but now they are being forced to paying for an ID card which has no benefit to them. The view of our international student members is that if the UK wants international students to have ID cards, then the UK must pay for it.
Length of leave
The length of initial periods of leave to remain are also deeply problematic, in that several courses such as medicine, dentistry, architecture, veterinary science and some engineering courses will have an ordinary length of longer than four years. This could have a particular impact on (and is as such a particular concern of) NUS' Scottish members, whose courses are normally longer than their equivalents elsewhere.
Although the high cost of visa extension applications remains a major issue regardless of this policy, NUS strongly believes that students who are able to demonstrate that the ordinary length of their course is longer than four years at the time of initial application must not have to pay to extend their visa if, through no fault of their own, that period of leave cannot be granted in full in one go. Similarly, they must not have to return to their country of origin to apply for this extension. NUS would like reassurance from the Home Office that the intention is for such applications to be free and that they can be made whilst the student remains in the UK.
Even with such a reassurance, it remains that the additional administration of reapplication is still time consuming and unnecessary, and NUS would urge the Home Office to abandon this trial period. We can see no justification for linking the issue of the efficacy of the monitoring process to the period of leave granted, and students should be granted sufficient leave to complete their course from the outset.
We would also like clarification as to whether any period of leave will be long enough to allow attendance at graduation ceremonies at the end of a course.
Financial resources
We are also highly concerned about the level of financial resource students must be able to demonstrate before entering the UK. NUS believes that one set figure of £800 per month does not reflect differences in living costs in different parts of the UK and in such a high figure will in any case act as a deterrent to application.
It is also unclear how fluctuations in exchange rates will be addressed in determining the resources available to students.
Academic staff
Finally, one of our members has also raised a concern that some academic staff may not meet the requirements for fast-tracked entry, which may lead to a shortage of language teachers from outside the EU. We would ask the Home Office to look into this, with input from Universities UK, to see if there is any issue that should be resolved.
We would of course be happy to discuss these issues further with the Home Office and we look forward to your response in due course.
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