London Metropolitan Uni: Visa License Revoked

by Ellie on 04 September 2012 09:25

As many of you are probably aware, London Met had its Visa license revoked last week which affects over 2,000 students. If you aren't aware of it please take a look at this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/9518345/Concerns-over-hundreds-of-foreign-students-at-London-Metropolitan-University.html

I wanted to get some peoples opinion. I have been debating it with my friends and some seem to think that the government are being too heavy handed and aren't considering the human factor (the students) others argue that it is the Universities fault; they were warned about the standard of VISA applications a year ago and they did not take enough action.

What do you guys think?

Ellie

by rammohan Chiluveru on 05 September 2012 15:51

Hi,

The students at London Metropolitan University are caught unawares with the recovation of University's Licence to take foreign students, because the decision is sudden and not anticipated as far as students are considered. They might have had no idea of the problems faced by the University with UK Border Agency and the University should have brought to the notice of the students, much earlier, that they are having difficulties in abiding by the norms of UK Border agency.

In long term the UKBA's decision may have a detrimental effect on the foreign students intending to studying in UK, incase the affected students are not rehabiliated in other UK Universites satisfactorily.

I hope the other UK Universities become cautious after this unexpected development.

Regards,

by Hollie on 06 September 2012 11:01

Hi,
As a London met student I can safely say myself and my peers were not aware of this situation until it appeared on the news. It is the current students going into year 3 I feel sorry for as all the preparation for their project work has been undertaken and the light at the end of the tunnel was visible.
However where the blame should be pointed we will never know. I am sure there is a lot more to this case than the media portrays, however I think that it could of been handled a lot better I.e. not allowing new students but letting the others finish their courses would of been a lot fairer in my opinion.

by Joe we get on 07 September 2012 08:17

Well this is all about coalition of Prime minister strategy to reduce immigration figure down as planning. If you review the excuse they gave and analysis properly you would find that is only targeting foreign student whom contribute to Britain economy yearly 3.3bln while London met alone 30m.

Realistically, 1) attendance issue: I have went from uk gcse level up to my master leve none of the institute pay attention to the attendance. These foreign student they pay a lot of money to sat our these universities class they wouldn't mess around. 2) English language prefencies: who give them admission ISNT UNIVERSITY OR THEM SELF? For that case what is the sins they commit, thought, there are innocent. 3) They state again some are don't even allow to stay in the country while are studying at Uni: this is bullying, I knew one guy finished BSc and now undertaking master degree at LondonMet, the person paid whole fees in mid of term, the person visa finished, made application to extend stay, home office turned down the application and write to the person to leave the country while his study in progress. Why are they giving tough time to such a talented guy whom are here for only a sake of education. To be honest, did EU student can they speak better English that other or can UK citizens can they write better English and finish top grade than foreign?

Finally, these issue need to take into further consideration: the university mess up they should face the consequence not innocent foregin student. The university should absolutely close down. 2) refund the fees been paid. Every should feel the pain!!!

by Alex on 13 September 2012 12:37

Having recently graduated from London Met, i can tell you that it is a hive of foreign students. only a small number in comparison will be affected. its not nice and its not ideal but in response to the above comment, i know a lot of foreign students that attended for the first year, never came back, but were still on attendance sheets etc. of course, people do pay a lot to get into uni from over seas but a fact that cant be ignored is that there are known instances (more than you probably realise), of foreign students entering the UK on student visas and disappearing into the system. dont tar all people with the same good intentions. its just plain un realistic and as i studied there myself, i know of a few instances were that kind of optimism is laughable.

This, coupled with that fact that London met recently was fined and ordered to pay back money it had claimed illegaly for two years for foreign students that were not there, only last year means that the uni cannot be trusted with foreign students. Having studied there for three years, being native british and being an ethnic minority there, i can tell you that loosing its ability to issue visas is indeed punishing the uni. its the main student base and they are going to loose out massively (and rightly so). as for the students, its regrettable and not nice but london met have taken the "p" for far too long. i can tell you with all honesty that the uni as a whole is unorganized and needs a push to get them back to a proper uni status. nevertheless, i enjoyed my time there but it is not your typical uni experience. you are all only getting the media side of the story. go there, check out the uni study there for three years to see how poor things can really get there and it will be evident that something needed to be done.

Luckily i finished before all of this kicked off, but this has been on the cards for a long time. warnings have been issued, fines given and punishments dished out for as long as i was there. this current issue, i assure you, was not a last resort. granted, the people in the cross fire are in a dire situation and its not nice to see, but blame the uni, not the border force. London met had multiple opportunities to change and do things differently but instead, just payed the fines and moved on without any change in policy.

Also, in respose to the above comment "just close the uni down", what would happen to the other st udents that study there?? bit of an extreme method

by tasha on 14 September 2012 11:26

i think its wrong for the government to just do that, i think the situation as been handled badly. we get £7 billion a year from foreign students and i think the government is just setting a bad example. if we keep using foreign students for political gain there are other countries like a America that will take these students .

by Alex on 14 September 2012 17:26

How could this have been done differently? They had been warned and fined on various occassions over the last 3-4 years and still, they hadnt changed anything. this was unfortunately, a very messy, yet inevitable conclusion to a bad situation.

I also appreciate that foreign students contribute a lot to our economy, but once again, youre missing the point that there are, and always will be, illegal foreign immigrants. now if you tally up the potential cost in unpaid taxes from illegal work alone (which is impossible due to the fact that our system doesnt even know numbers for illegal immigrants), the cost, i am willing to bet will be large too. London met needed to be cut off to stem the flow. Now, no one is arguing that foreign students are a valuable resource for any economy, however, in turn you cannot argue that illegal immigration gained from student visas isnt a huge factor. it is. and unfortunately, london met, after various warnings etc, still contributed quite extensively to illegal immigration. a nasty situation, agreed, but im not sure if there is a clean cut way to deal with it