Apparently, it’s Christmas. I say this because I cannot believe its December already and 2007 is drawing to a close. The most significant event for the campaign was the acknowledgement of what we have been campaigning for years, provision for a full time international officer. Despite our protests at not being included on the board, the proposal for the new NUS was passed and we are waiting to see if our provision will actually come to light.

Recently, the home office has released a statement of intent regarding immigration changes to be over the next few years in stages. The one likely to affect students the most is the implementation of Tier 4 “Students” in the first quarter of 2009.

For information on the statement, please visit the home office mini site. It outlines information about what this actual means for students. We would welcome your comments/questions about this.

Already there are changes that are starting to take effect already as visitor/tourist visas will now be halved in terms of staying time and have more stringent requirements. This was recently highlighted by the BBC.

In my last blog I talked about over-stayers, since the introduction of the new regulations (to stay the least) the home office is aware of the serious repercussions on how it has affected students who, for various reasons, have overstayed and been deported without much leeway in consideration. We have been pushing them to adjust their attitude and shall continue to do so over the coming months.

Evita Situma

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