UK universities use ‘extreme measures’ to meet visa rules
Thursday, 24 April 2014 00:00
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UK universities are resorting to “extreme measures” to make sure they do not fall foul of immigration compliance requirements, according to a House of Lords report.
Some of these measures, writes David Matthews for Times Higher Education, include fingerprinting international students before lectures.
They should “adopt a proportionate response” as they try to maintain their licenses to sponsor international students, the Lord’s science and technology select committee report urges. In it, international science, technology, engineering and mathematics student recount incidents of fingerprinting before lectures and international PhD students being forced to “travel long distances to have their passports checked at a different campus”.
“The evidence we received suggested that universities may be fearful of being judged as non-compliant” with their immigration duties, it says. The report recommends the reintroduction of the post-study work visa, scrapped in 2012, which gave international students the automatic right to work in the UK for two years after graduation.
