‘Closing bogus UK colleges led to a drop in Indian students’

THE COLLEGES WERE MAINLY IN THE ‘FURTHER EDUCATION’ SECTOR THAT PROVIDES VOCATIONAL SKILLS AND CERTIFICATION

LONDON: One of the major reasons for a drop in Indian students coming to Britain in recent years is the closure of nearly 800 bogus colleges that enrolled international students but did not have the required infrastructure or standing, ministers have suggested.

The bogus colleges were mainly in the “further education” sector that provides vocational skills and certification. They were closed after 2010, when Home Office evidence showed many Indian and other non EU“students” enrolled with them were working instead of studying.

Overall, there has been a drop of more than 50% in Indian students since 2010, but ministers told Parliament this week that after the crackdown on bogus colleges, the number of Indian students going to universities — instead of further education colleges — had gone up.

Responding to a debate on international students at Westminster Hall, immigration minister Robert Goodwill said, “The proportion of Indian students coming to study in the UK at a university increased from around 50% in 2010 to around 90% in 2015. This trend of smaller volumes of students with greater concentrations in higher education is likely to reflect the recent policy changes to clamp down on immigration abuse by non-genuine students and bogus colleges.”

The same figures were cited by minister of state for home Susan Williams in the House of Lords at the end of a debate that included a forceful intervention by Karan Bilimoria, who regretted that official rhetoric about student visas was adversely affecting a successful export sector. Another reason for the drop in Indian students was the closure in 2012 of the post-study work visa, popular among self-financing Indian students, who used it to gain work experience after their courses and to recover some of the cost of their study and stay.

According to latest figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the number of Indian students fell from 39,090 in 2010-11 to 18,320 in 2014-15.