UK Colleges in Jeopardy Due To Stringent Visa Regulations

Tale Of A University – A well-known Florida based Schiller International University, which has campuses overseas, will be forced to close its London campus and have decided against starting their autumn semester. It was arranged to start from August 30, 2011. The officials at the university revealed that they will not be disclosing figures related to their enrollment; however stated that nearly all of its students hailed from countries outside the European Union. This clearly implies for the imperative need for British visas.

Declaration – It was in March 2011 when these regulations were declared in an address by Home Secretary Theresa May to the Parliament, in which she asserted that the government was making concentrated efforts to nab fake students as well as colleges. The initial changes of the movement were initiated for in the month of April, while more stringent regulations are in line to be forced by the coming year (April 2012).

Main Targets – Britain’s first and only Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government led by David Cameron, listed reduction of immigration as their main target ever since it was brought into power in 2010. Damian Green, the Immigration Minister gave a speech that year stating that even though the country was hugely benefited from alien citizens coming in, “indefensible levels of net migration that the government has witnessed of late, has to be lessened substantially.”

Losses – However, on the flip-side, the British economy is all set to suffer enormous losses. An estimated £1.3 billion to £3.6 billion, is about to be lost in the next four years. This would largely be because of the omitted contribution of these foreign students in the output. The revenue to be lost by Universities in the form of fees would be £170 million, along with the UK Border Agency losing a hefty £160 million as visa process charges.

Further Impacts – A few of the institutions have already submitted to the fact that it is no longer feasible to run their universities any longer. According to the stringer structure, each of the educational institutions will need to obtain a Highly Trusted Sponsor status from some of the enlisted official authorization bodies prior to sponsoring potential overseas students for their visa applications. From every year post the changes, allotment of student visas will go down by 67,000.