London: The UK on Saturday announced a partial lifting of the ban on students visas in north India, sending a
wave of relief among thousands of genuine students who are at
an advanced stage of enrolling at British universities.
Announcing this, Pat McFadden, the Minister for
Business, Innovation and Skills, Mr Pat McFadden, said, "The
suspension was taken in response to a huge surge in
applications over a very short period of time."
He added, "I am delighted to be able to announce on Saturday that, from 1 March, this suspension will be lifted for
all students wanting to study higher education courses,
whether foundation degrees, undergraduate or postgraduate."
However, he added that the temporary suspension
will remain in place for all those wanting to study at lower
levels.
McFadden said: "But we will continue to keep this
under review and will lift it as soon as we can, and once the
new highly trusted sponsor system for colleges and other
educational establishments across the UK is in place."
Student visas from north India were suspended on 1
February, causing concern among thousands of students, their
families and also British universities who depend on high
fee-paying international students for a substantial part of
their revenue.
According to official figures, the direct value of
students from India and other non-European Union countries to
the UK economy is estimated at 8.5 billion pounds annually.
Announcing a tighter student visa regime last week,
Home secretary Alan Johnson today said bogus students will
find it difficult to gain entry and work in Britain illegally.
But he added that genuine students will continue to
be welcome. The new regulations will ensure that students
studying below degree level have a limited ability to work in
the UK, and that their dependants cannot work here at all.
It will be even harder for bogus students, whose only
aim is to work in the UK, to come into the country, he said.
Johnson said: "The points-based system was
introduced to provide a rigorous system to manage legitimate
access to the UK to work and study, with the ability to
respond to changing circumstances.
We want foreign students to come here to study, not
to work illegally, and today we have set out necessary steps
which will maintain the robustness of the system we introduced
last year.
I make no apologies for that."
Johnson said, the changes are part of a radical
overhaul of the student system which began last year.
Since March 2009, the government has required all
foreign students to be sponsored by a college licensed by the
UK Border Agency, and to demonstrate that they can support
themselves once they get here before being granted a visa.
PTI
