Academics call for new visa rules to be scrapped

Delegates at the University and College Union's (UCU) annual congress in Manchester vowed to campaign against the points-based immigration system, claiming it flies in the face of academic freedom.

The system was introduced in an attempt to prevent people getting visas by applying to bogus colleges in Britain.

In a debate yesterday UCU members passed a resolution calling on the union to mount a legal challenge to the legislation at national level and then, if necessary, to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

Under the new system, academics must report international students if they fail to enrol, miss lectures or drop out.

Institutions must report their concerns if they think a student could be involved in terrorism.

The toughened-up rules also mean all universities and colleges taking foreign students need a licence from the UK Border Agency.

The resolution passed called on the UCU congress to "condemn the highly discriminatory nature of the immigration points system and its corrosive impact upon academic freedoms and equality and diversity with the university sector".

A second resolution, which was also carried, claimed that in the past few months, many applications from countries including Bangladesh, Nepal and northern India have been rejected.

It called for a high-profile campaign opposing restrictions to student and employment visas.

The UCU's general secretary Sally Hunt said: "UCU remains utterly opposed to this legislation. It is one thing to ask people to be good citizens but forcing our members to act as an extension of the police and border service and to spy on students is just unacceptable.

"Placing monitoring and reporting responsibilities on to academic and support staff is in no-one's interest and risks placing a huge strain on the relationships between staff and students.

"We will do all that we can to work with external organisations, sister unions and students in opposing this legislation."