LMU license for non-EU students revoked
Some 120 Bangladeshi students would have to drop out of London Metropolitan University and face deportation in 60 days after the UK Border Agency revoked the university’s license to teach non-European Union students, a Bangladesh high commission official in London told New Age on Thursday.
The agency gave the students, whose documents were perfect, 60 days to find a new university and ‘regularise their stay’ or leave Britain.
The UKBA cancelled the permission granted to the university for recruiting non-EU students because of its ‘serious systemic failure’ to know whether they had the right to be in UK in the first place, the immigration minister, Damien Green, said speaking on the BBC’s Today programme.
The UKBA audits conducted on the LMU found that more than a quarter of students sampled had no reason to remain in Britain, according to the Guardian published from London.
There was also no proof that ‘a significant proportion’ of international students had satisfactory English. And, in more than half of cases, the university did not know whether students were turning up at lectures or not.
Green said ‘any of these three breaches would be serious’ and that it was important to ensure ‘not just private colleges but universities obey the law’.
Nearly 3,000 non-EU students would face removal unless they can find another place to study within 60 days, the Guardian reported.
Efforts to find alternative places for existing international students could prove difficult – even if they have appropriate visas – as most universities already recruited their international numbers for the new academic year.
The LMU students union vice president for education, Syed Rumman, accused the government of ‘chucking students’ lives into the bin’.
Nine of the ten union office-bearers, including all five sabbatical officers, are international students, and like others, face administrative removal in 60 days if they do not find other higher education institutions to offer them a place.
Liam Burns, president of the National Union of Students, said the UKBA decision would create panic and potential heartbreak for students not just at the LMU but also all around the UK.
An official of the LMU’s Bangladesh office told New Age on Thursday afternoon that they have started searching alternative admission opportunities for the student’s who were supposed to join the university this year.
Britain’s lucrative higher education industry involves about 4,80,000 foreign students and is worth an estimated £5bn a year to the economy.
Courtesy of New Age
