Thousands of Pakistani students at risk in UK

LONDON: Pakistani students in Britain are in the top league of those international students who are being reported to the immigration authorities by the education providers concerning their visa status in the UK.
A study showed yesterday that more than 1,500 foreign students are being pinpointed to immigration officials each month. The Manifesto Club campaign group, which obtained the figures under the Freedom of Information Act, told The News the UK Border Agency didn’t give them any specific figures on Pakistani students but confirmed that Pakistani students were amongst the “high risk” - indicating that they were amongst the top 4 reported groups.
“We have been told that Pakistan is amongst the high risk countries in terms of bogus students,” Josie Appleton, the group’s director told The News while talking about the findings of the ‘Students Under Watch’ report.
Universities and other sponsors of international students reported at least 27,121 migrants to the UK Border Agency in the 18 months leading up to August last year, figures showed.
The stringent measures introduced by the coalition government means hundreds of bogus colleges offering cheap qualifications have been shut down, forcing thousands of students out. The number of hours a student can work has also been cut from 20 to 10 hours a week.
The clampdown on the bogus colleges means thousands of Pakistani and other South Asian national students have to either pay high fees to the regularised institutions or the institution is bound to report them to the Home Office. The colleges which failed to get the highly trusted sponsor status have simply disappeared, leaving students in limbo and a hectic legal battle to recoup their fees. Hundreds of students have simply given up on the plans of joining another education provider.
Education is the most common reason for migrants coming to the UK, with three in four of the 228,000 who came to the UK for study last year coming from outside the EU. The Manifesto Club said the stringent visa controls were forcing UK academics to spy on their own students, eroding academic autonomy and damaging relationships between students and staff.
The group said: “Universities are reporting large numbers of international students to the UKBA. The agency asks sponsors to email any suspicions about students; each notification can include information about several students”.Between March 2009 and August last year, the UKBA received 27,121 notifications from education providers, the equivalent of more than 1,500 a month, the figures showed.
Valerie Hartwich, author of the report told The News Pakistani students represent a large portion of all international students coming to Britain and they are, therefore, crucial to the educational sector of this country. But she said, Pakistani students have reported being particularly singled out for questioning on entering the UK for their studies.
She agreed that applicants from Pakistan often suffer from the bad reputation built by a few bogus applicants, and well publicised scams and as a result Pakistani applicants for student visas are thus more likely to see applications rejected though they are genuine and fulfil UKBA requirements. She said: “With the new changes to student visas Pakistani applicants for student visas are likely to face a harder time obtaining visas to study in the UK because as a country Pakistan will probably be on the ‘suspicious’ list and some of its banking institutions are also likely to be on a list of unacceptable banking institutions.