Since April 2009 education providers in the UK have had to appear on the UK Border Agency’s Register of Sponsors in order to sponsor international students. One of the new rules imposed on education providers was to turn them into surveillance arms of the UK Border Agency, and many students have finally cracked now Britain’s surveillance society has infected their overseas education.
Last month a protest was held by the group Students Not Suspects outside offices of Goldsmiths College, University of London. Students Not Suspects are now vocally resisting the increased surveillance of international students, carried out by University staff at the orders of the UK Border Agency. More than 30 people took part in the demonstration, comprising of both staff and students.
As part of the major reform of the UK’s student visa system that is set to continue until April 2012 (and probably onwards ad infinitum), education providers that wanted to recruit international students became responsible for these students. By pain of death, well to the extent that a sponsor’s licence would be withdrawn and they would only be able to recruit students from within the EU (and who pay considerably less in fees, even at private education providers).
Colleges and schools became responsible for maintaining attendance and reporting any students who dropped below a prescribed level, immediately to the UK Border Agency. How this policy has been implemented by many educational providers leaves much to be desired. For instance, one provider sent emails to all their international students to their college-provided email account, which most students did not use. Many therefore did not pick up the email – requesting they present themselves and their passport to the Admin Office – inadvertently endangering their visa, enrolment on the course and right to remain in the UK.
It is exactly this concern – of wrongly reporting a student as AWOL – that worries Des Freedman, secretary of the University and College Union (UCU is the largest trade union and professional association for academics, lecturers, trainers, researchers and academic-related staff working in further and higher education throughout the UK). He is an active supporter of the Students Not Suspects group and he highlights the problem with a fantastic example from Goldsmiths College, London. In the first instance, management had prepared a list of 200 students to report to the UK Border Agency for curtailment of leave to remain in the UK. Following pressure for revision from Students Not Suspects, that list has been reduced to just 20 names. To date, no names have been passed to the UK Border Agency at all; one can immediately see the problem as Des sums it up: “…even one name handed to the authorities in error was one name too many”.
However, education providers find themselves in a situation far more complicated than that. The UK Coalition’s efforts to date have been a knee-jerk reaction to abuse of the student visa system. The introduction of the Highly Trusted Sponsor licence was done to crack down on bogus colleges and bogus students. Government’s plans do not stop there however, and there will be a new licence typed launched, the Highly Trusted Sponsor Plus, which will be reserved for the most UK Border Agency compliant education providers in the country. Sponsors are fearful that having such a licence will become increasingly necessary to recruit international students. And being UK Border Agency compliant means handing over lists of names.
The Students Not Suspects campaign has also been vocal in expressing the value of international students, to both domestic students and the wider UK as a whole. International students facilitate huge capital flows that reach right down to the local economy and provide a culturally diverse environment for domestic students to study in.
It seems that up-take for the campaign has been slow, but progress has been made. The concept was born at Goldsmiths College and has now linked up with like minded students at the London School of Economics. Here’s all the best to them in their mission to bring awareness to the outsourcing of UK Border Agency functions to the sponsors themselves.
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