Month: November 2011

“There has been much rhetoric in the press recently regarding the strict UK student visa policies’ impact on the higher education sector, nobody denies that.

No matter how much we all need our jobs, how much we are desperate to avoid the unemployment figures rising in this country, we cannot deny one hard fact. Some of these private colleges were acting as retail outlets and selling UK student visas to those who wished to come to UK to earn money. The majority of the students studying in these colleges were, and are, in the UK not with the intention to study, but only to work.

These private colleges were aware of these facts but, in order to make easy money, were recruiting disingenuous students from overseas, especially countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nigeria etc. As people from these countries are desperate to come to the UK to earn money due to poverty at home, therefore, they are exploited by the colleges and the recruiting agents who advise them to use the student visa route to enter UK.

All these private colleges form a sub-prime academic world where the quality of education is defenestrated and the focus is on passing the students and making money out of them. Many of these colleges exploited the Post-Study work route as well.

Their unscrupulous activity is not limited to the students but the staff working in these colleges are ill-treated and have to work in a sweat-shop kind of an environment. Owners of these colleges pressurise the staff to commit shenanigans and are threatened of their job if instructions are not followed.

Staff members under pressure commit all these shenanigans under the instructions of the owners of the colleges.  At the time of a UKBA or media raid, owners of the college deny their involvement and flee from UK with huge sum of money using the staff members as the scapegoats. In addition, the staff members of most of these colleges are demoralised due to non-conducive working environment and that is why many of these colleges face a high employee turnover.

Marketing activities in these colleges are not managed by qualified marketing experts but the owners of the colleges themselves. These marketing quacks create links with dubious recruiting agents in their home countries who supply them with the students (so-called) who wish to come to UK.

A few years back, when the UK student visa immigration rules were relaxed, many people without educational background entered this industry to make quick money.  I believe many of these private independent colleges are the hubs of poor governance, dubious marketing strategies, ignorance of academic knowledge and they have left no stone unturned in contaminating the UK higher education industry.

UKBA is making reasonable amendments in order to curtail all these shenanigans but unfortunately these new laws are affecting the genuine educational providers as well.

Murad Ali.

Murad Ali works as an Operations Manager for a private independent college in the UK.  He has been in this industry for five years and started as a lecturer. 

Guest blogger: Jessica Guiver

“A couple of weeks ago I wrote that anecdotal evidence suggests this year fewer Indian students are applying to study in the UK than in the recent past.  I partially blamed the discontinuation of the Post Study Work scheme, but I realize that’s too simplistic.

Last week heralded the annual event eagerly anticipated by international educators the world over; IIE’s Open Doors Report was published.  The report declared that Indian student enrolment in the USA was down 1% from last year.  This prompted extremist headlines which ranged from “Minor drop in number of Indians studying in the US” to “Are Indian Students Shunning America?”

What I’m wondering is: if they aren’t coming here to study, and they aren’t going to the USA to study, where are they going?

News reports this summer suggested that interest in Canada as a study destination is gaining.  The New York Times reported a “Surge in Number of Indian Students Heading to Canadian Colleges”, although when you look at the actual numbers they are still quite small (12,000) compared to the number of Indians who chose the USA (104,000) in 2010.

And after several years of declining numbers, Australia is once again seeing an increase in visa applications from Indian students, thanks in part to the more relaxed immigration policies, although university enrolment numbers have yet to reflect this.  (as reported by Australian newspaper The Age, “Indian students returning to Australia”)

I think it all comes down to market share and ‘education hubs’.  The USA, the UK and Australia are seeing their market share of Indian students slowly being chipped away because of the proliferation of education hubs around the world.  No longer does a student who wants to study overseas have to go to one of those three countries to get the kind of education they’ve been dreaming of.

Australian, American and British universities are opening branch campuses worldwide.  Universities across Asia are opening branches in other countries.  Governments everywhere are investing in higher education in order to make their nation the desired education destination. Everyone wants students from anywhere.  The flow isn’t just East to West anymore; it’s now East to West, West to East, North to South, vice versa and diagonally.  So Indian students (and all students) have more choice now than ever before of where they can go to study.

Of course the USA, the UK and Australia will always attract great numbers of students, but the option to go elsewhere is viable and compelling.  It’s an exciting time to work in international higher education.”

Jessica Guiver is an international development officer for a UK university and a blogger. You can follow her on Twitter: www.twitter.com/intlrecruiter

The UK’s English language teaching industry really has been treated horribly by its government…  The Home Office has continually changed the visa rules so that education agencies around the world report that they now prefer doing business with other countries where they at least know what the visa issuing confines are. It has ruled that international students cannot work part-time while enrolled at private language colleges, even though they can do so at state institutions. And it has elbowed out the long-standing industry-specific accreditation systems – such as Accreditation UK (the British Council-backed scheme) or ABLS – decreeing that institutions who wish to operate under Tier 4 of the visa regime and recruit General Student visa holders must now pay four-times as much and undergo a quality inspection by an accreditation body that has no track record of working with language training organisations.

Does it sound as if I am making it up? If only… but it gets worse. Two weeks ago, the Home Office issued a statement in which it trumpeted that “over 400 colleges have lost their right to recruit international students”… failing to clarify that many of these colleges chose to lose their right to recruit under Tier 4, but are still quality-accredited by sector-specific organisations and can recruit under a separate visa category. This statement got translated by the press as over 400 colleges being banned –  and sections of the press actually printed the names of some of those colleges. Legal action is ensuing – and you can read more about this story and all the background on our site.

I am sure the political pendulum in the UK will swing the other way in time, and steps will be taken to help bolster the education export industry while maintaining safeguards against visa fraud. The industry was unchecked for too long and then the government crushed some of the smaller operators in the sector while trying to stamp out visa fraud and reduce immigration. Stamping out visa fraud is of course an essential remit of any government; but trying to reduce immigrant numbers to an unrealistic pledge of tens of thousands, and counting temporary students as migrants in the first place, is not such a noble political pursuit in my opinion.

Amy Baker is Director and Editor-in-Chief at The PIE. Follow her on Twitter: www.twitter.com/amybakerThePIE