Concern over admission of dubious foreign students

London: More than 90,000 foreign students have been allowed to pour into Britain in the past year to attend colleges that are not ‘trusted' by the Government.

Ministers fear huge numbers have simply vanished into the underground economy and will never go home. The scandal was to be revealed in a speech on Monday by immigration minister Damian Green.

He has been investigating the private colleges which offer a route into Britain for massive numbers of non-EU students.

Green, who is preparing to crack down on every route into the UK for migrants, will say: "I have been turning over the stones, and I have to report that some unpleasant things have crawled out. We need to stop this abuse."

Labour claimed the introduction of a points-based system would end rampant abuse of the student visa system by colleges. Students were only supposed to be allowed to enter the country to attend colleges which have been checked and approved.

But Green says Labour allowed students to continue to be granted visas to attend colleges which had not received so-called "highly trusted status". This means there is a chance the students could vanish without the authorities being contacted.

As of mid-January, 613 private colleges which are not "highly trusted" had the ability to sponsor a total of 280,000 international students between them. They have assigned 120,000 of the 280,000 available places, 91,000 in visa applications in the past year.

Abuse potential

Green will say: "That's up to 91,000 people coming here to study at institutions which are not verified as Highly Trusted. The potential for abuse is clearly enormous."

The Home Office has been consulting on plans to tackle the abuse. Once the responses have been studied, Green is likely to announce that entry will be dramatically reduced for non-degree students.

The government will also introduce a tougher English language requirement, and make students wishing to extend their studies show evidence of academic progression. Non-EU students will also find it far harder to work and bring dependants here.

Private colleges will be the focus of the crackdown because that is where Green has discovered most abuse. Since the points-based system was introduced two years ago, the UK Border Agency has revoked the sponsorship licence of 58 colleges. They were all privately funded.

The agency has also suspended a total of 247 sponsors. On the sponsor register of 2,298 licensed colleges, 744 are private colleges, independent schools registered with the Department of Education.

Figures: Immigration issues

280,000 - foreign students private colleges can sponsor

58 - colleges' sponsor licence revoked by Border Agency