NUS response to Home Office consultation on a new charging regime for international students

The Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are doing a joint consultation on fees charged for entry clearance and for extensions in the UK. The consultation is inviting the views of stakeholders, customers and the general public on the proposals.

As the Home Office implements the measures outlined in the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) review, which included a confirmation of the Government's plans to introduce the Points Based System, the Government needs to consider how immigration services are paid for. The question of particular relevance to international students in the consultation are: should education institutions include payment of visa fee within sponsorship and certificate fees? (question 5).

For further information and to view the consultation paper, please visit the IND website: IND website for more details)

What your students' union can do

We encourage students' unions to have a read and respond to the question 5 asked in the consultation paper. The closing date for the consultation is 22nd of December.

Your response should be cautious about endorsing any of the proposals for different approaches to charging until more information was available on likely costs. It should however re-iterate many of the points which had been made in the past, i.e that:

• the UK needed to have a pricing system for students which was internationally competitive, recognised their importance to the economy and that they were primarily coming 'to learn not earn';
• many institutions were already, through the batch sceme, absorbing significant costs;
• Leave to Remain charges, even at their present rates, appeared excessive:
• it would be inequitable to load generic compliance and enforcement costs on students where there was little evidence of abuse: and
• Certificates of Sponsorship were little more than confirmed offer letters and there was therefore little or no justification for any additional fees and charges.
• It should not support the proposal for institutions to include visa fees within 'sponsorship' as this could well disguise their real costs to the customer.

New! Please find attached NUS response: NUS response