UNITED KINGDOM – Investigation uncovers huge foreign student visa fraud
By Peta Lee (26 June 2014)
Tens of thousands of foreign students with invalid language test scores have been exposed in a groundbreaking investigation in Britain, while 57 private further education colleges have been stripped of their licences. Three universities have been prohibited from sponsoring new international students pending further investigations, and some 750 bogus colleges have been removed from the list of those entitled to bring foreign students to Britain.
Swift crackdowns and shock findings of massive ongoing investigations were announced by Immigration and Security Minister James Brokenshire last Tuesday 24 June.
He said that since February, immigration enforcement officers and the National Crime Agency, along with officials from UK Visas and Immigration, had been conducting a detailed and wide-ranging investigation into actions by organised criminals to falsify English language tests for student visa applicants.
They had also investigated a number of colleges and universities for their failure to ensure the foreign students they had sponsored met the standards set out in the immigration rules.
At two universities – Glyndwr and West London – hundreds of ‘sponsored’ international students had been found to have invalid English language test results, said Brokenshire.
Glyndwr University’s ‘highly-trusted’ status – the right to sponsor foreign students – had been removed. Two further universities, Bedfordshire and West London, were no longer allowed to sponsor new students pending further investigations that would decide whether they should be suspended.
“Other universities are involved in the continuing investigation and further action may follow, although because of the steps they have already taken to improve their processes including voluntarily ceasing overseas recruitment to London sub-campuses, we will not at this stage remove their right to sponsor foreign students,” the minister told parliament.
“Because much of the worst abuse we have uncovered seems to be taking place at London sub-campuses of universities based in other parts of the country, I can also tell the House that the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education will examine these London campuses to see whether further action should be taken against their parent universities.”
English language testing
Since 2011, it has been a requirement in the UK for all student visa applicants to prove they can speak English at an appropriate level.
All students in further education or at a university that relies on English language testing, who want to extend their stay by applying for a new student visa, must be tested by one of five companies licensed by the government.
One of those, the European subsidiary of an American firm called Educational Testing Services or ETS, was exposed by the BBC’s Panorama programme earlier this year after systematic cheating at a number of its UK test centres.
More than 29,000 invalid results and more than 19,000 questionable results were identified. “As they still have to receive test analyses from ETS for other testing centres that they operated in the UK, it is likely that the true totals will be higher,” the minister said.
Brokenshire said ETS testing was immediately suspended in the UK, and a hold was placed on all immigration applications from people in the UK using an ETS test certificate: all applications from overseas were made subject to interviews by UK Visas and Immigration staff.
“Two weeks ago we formally removed the company as a test provider in the immigration rules,” he said.
Wider concerns
Wider concerns had also been uncovered at colleges and universities, Brokenshire added, including that a number of international students were earning more than £20,000 (US$34,000) a year – despite the rule forbidding them to work more than 20 hours a week during term time.
Overseas students at privately funded further education colleges are prohibited from working at all, yet the London School of Business and Finance had 290 foreign students who worked and paid tax last year. One had been working a 60-hour week for six months.
Investigations also revealed that among students sponsored by Glyndwr University, 230 had been found to have invalid test results provided by ETS, rising to more than 350 if questionable scores were included. At the University of West London there were at least 210 sponsored students with invalid scores, rising to almost 300 when questionable scores were included.
At some private further education colleges, as many as three quarters of the file checks raised serious questions. At one college, a staff member told visa officers they were not encouraged to report students’ absence or failure because doing so would reduce the college’s income and jeopardise its right to sponsor foreign students.
Added the minister: “We will not hesitate to take firm action against students, colleges and universities who do not abide by their legal responsibilities.”
Source: http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20140626114056121