UKBA Discrimination

The request was successful.

Dear UK Border Agency,

Can you kindly explain why?

1. The UKBA actively pursues published policies that discriminates against international students in privately-funded institutions who pay exactly the same fee for your services as against those who study at publicly-funded institutions and HEIs in relation to requirements re: English testing, right to bring dependants, work/study ratio etc., which suggests a flagrant disregard for the UK Competition Act of 1998, the UK Enterprise Act of 2002 and EU Competition Laws, and;

2. The UKBA actively pursues a published policy to reduce the number of international students seeking to study at privately-funded institutions in the UK by 70% (67,000) by using the HTS route that secures all publicly-funded institutions and HEIs plus another 5,000 (when one considers that HEIs and publicly-funded institutions do not require any English test to secure a visa) with no plan that adversely affect HEIs and publicly-funded institutions.

Evidence: Paragraph 3.27 of the full report by the UK National Audit Office report of March 2012 available from - http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/1012/...

3. Is the UKBA indeed an independent regulator of the international students sector or solely and actively working against the interest of non-privately-funded Tier 4 institutions in the UK by way of policy formulation and implementation?

4. How many meetings have the UKBA had with Universities UK between the period from January 2011 to 20 May 2012 (stating exact dates) please?

Yours faithfully,

Ladi Tokosi

Freedom Of Information Team ( IND ), UK Border Agency

Dear Ladi Tokosi

Re: UKBA Discrimination (117090)

Thank you for your recent e mail concerning the above matter. We are currently dealing with your enquiry and will respond shortly.

Kind Regards

UKBA
FOI Team

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NEYH, Freedom of Information,

Dear Ladi Tokosi

 

Thank you for your enquiry of 20 May. This has been handled routinely
outside of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

Please see the information below in response to your query.

 

1. Home Office research in 2010 - available at:
[1]http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/siteco...
showed up to 26% of students at privately funded colleges of further and
higher education to be potentially non-compliant with the terms of their
visas, compared with up to 8% at publicly funded further education
colleges and up to 2% of those at universities.  That is why the changes
we have made differentiate between public and private institutions in
relation to the entitlements of their students to work.

 

2 & 3. Sponsors of Tier 4 students are required to be Highly Trusted
Sponsors and also to obtain a satisfactory Educational Oversight
inspection from one of the statutory bodies responsible for standards in
education. 

           

The Government tightened student visa policy in order to combat the high
levels of immigration abuse in this sector and lower educational standards
amongst the private sector colleges in particular.

 

Most abuse of the system has come from those private education businesses
that were not previously subject to the quality controls applied to
providers receiving public funds or in the independent schools sector. 
The Home    Office’s new approach to the licensing of education providers
sponsoring international students will raise    standards and benefit
genuine international students by ensuring that they receive high quality
education wherever they study.  They will also help to protect overseas
students from unscrupulous providers and support the many legitimate
colleges by protecting the excellent reputation of UK education worldwide.

 

4. Officials from the Home Office and UK Border Agency have met
representatives of Universities UK on a number of occasions in a number of
different locations.     

 

I hope this is of help to you. Please note that although you are in your
right to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, in this
instance, we have decided to handle your request routinely.

 

Kind regards

 

 

Daniela Walker

UK Border Agency

Vulcan House Steel

PO Box 3468

Sheffield

S3 8WA

 

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