24 | SPECIAL REPORT: LEGAL ISSUES | NEWS AND CURRENT AF FAIRS
may find that proclamation qualified with some rather prohibitive caveats. Since April 2012, significant
A
amendments have been made to the former student visa regime, curtailing a number of former privileges. Changes include the removal of the right to remain and work in the UK for two years after graduation, a five-year maximum stay, and a new requirement for student sponsors (HEIs) to hold Highly Trusted Status. Controversially, overseas students are also included in net migration figures – which some critics believe encourages border authorities to turn them away, in order to meet immigration targets. Paradoxically, in 2013, the government released a report, International Education: Global Growth and Prosperity, which stated its aim to boost international enrolment by 15–20%, (around 90,000 students), over the next five years. Although the authorities maintain
there is no threat to ‘genuine students’, and that its reforms were principally designed to clamp down on bogus ‘language schools’ in the college sector, many consider the government’s educational and immigration targets fundamentally incompatible. Since language schools and colleges often act as pathways into HE, a 46% drop in visas for these types of students in 2013 may also, commentators say, have major ramifications for universities. Something certainly seems amiss at postgraduate level – where numbers of Indian enrolments are down by 51%, and their Pakistani counterparts by a similar 49%.
THE CHALLENGES AHEAD
We talked to Karen Stephenson, a partner
A: We are in a much more transactional evidence-based environment and this will impact upon more traditionally valued relationships. Students are increasingly
inclined to challenge and appeal decisions on a quasi legal or legal basis, for example ‘I only achieved a lower second in my dissertation because of the poor, limited or non- existent supervision I received’, and this has to affect the way universities conduct themselves. Informal access and discussions
between students and university staff are developing into formal, booked appointments with notes taken on the nature of the discussion and advice given. When complaints do come in, by far and away the best solution is early resolution.
ccording to the government, Britain is ‘open for business’– although international students
“Aside from education quality, which naturally comes top, the perception of how ‘welcoming’ a country has become is the most important factor in choosing a place to study for international students.” Duncan Findlater
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