Visa clampdown ‘could weed out thousands of bogus students’

Risk-based interviews of up to one in 20 potential international students will be brought in over the next year following a successful pilot scheme, the Home Office said.

UK Border Agency (UKBA) staff will also be given a new power to refuse entry to any applicant whose credibility they doubt, with potential students from India, Bangladesh and Burma expected to be among those hardest hit.

The three-month pilot scheme found 32 per cent of almost 2,000 students from outside the EU who were interviewed and granted a UK visa would have been denied one if UKBA officials had the power to refuse visas because they suspected the applicant was not a genuine student, the Home Office said.

Almost half (45 per cent) of applicants from Burma would have been refused under the credibility test, along with almost two-fifths (38 per cent) from Bangladesh and almost a third (29 per cent) from India, the pilot scheme which ran from December last year to February found.

Between 10,000 and 14,000 student visa applicants – around 5 per cent of the total – are expected to be interviewed over the next year.

Further new powers will also enable officials to refuse a visa to anyone who fails to attend an interview without a reasonable explanation.

Immigration Minister Damian Green said: “Under the current system UK Border Agency officers are unable to refuse some applications even if they have serious concerns over the credibility of the student.

“We are toughening up the system to keep out the fraudulent and unqualified while ensuring genuine students benefit from our country’s excellent education sector.”

High-risk applicants will be identified and asked a number of questions about their immigration and education history, study and post-study plans, and financial circumstances following the pilot scheme, the Home Office said.

Some 2,300 students from 47 nations were interviewed at 13 overseas posts in a bid to test how effective face-to-face interviews and the new refusal powers would be.

Some were unable to answer even basic questions in English without the aid of an interpreter, despite claiming to have good enough language skills to study at higher and further education institutions in the UK.