STUDENT IMMIGRATION WIN
After a thorough study, the higher education establishment, The University of Bedfordshire, has won back the ability to sponsor international students and recruit them into education.
The University has been disallowed the ability to issue CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies) since June 24, where an investigation was announced by the UKVI, which stands for UK Visas & Immigration. They intended to root out fraud within the places of education which had been exposed earlier in the year by a watchdog administration.
The Vice Chancellor for the University of Bedfordshire, Bill Rammell, said:
“I was always confident that our procedures for monitoring international students were robust and I’m pleased that UKVI’s thorough and detailed audit has confirmed this.”
He continued, saying that: “We take our immigration compliance responsibilities extremely seriously. We co-operated with UKVI throughout the audit and I’m delighted that, following this decision, we can now resume issuing CAS letters to new international students.”
Rammell also noted that they (the university) recruited a large amount of international students due to their percentage of graduates who find employment and their student satisfaction levels making them popular.
This event comes after a BBC Panorama exposed rings of organised cheating within various colleges and universities in the UK and the Home Office came under pressure to make immediate changes to rectify the situation. As a first move, they banned many higher education establishments from taking on international students while they conducted thorough studies that would decide whether they would be allowed to continue serving CAS letters internationally.
The organised cheating involved the applicants who would not be able to pass the tests on their own allowing others to take the tests for them.
This test was mainly the English Language standardised test, which allowed for Visa applicants to stay for education and to go on to work in the country.
Rammell added: “Also, 92 percent of Bedfordshire students find employment or are in further study soon after they graduate, one of the highest rates in the country.”
“Our courses are driven by world leading research and taught by some of the leading academics inside their field. The university provides students from all backgrounds with high quality teaching, outstanding facilities, great support and an excellent experience.”
He spoke confidently of the results that UKVI reached, suggesting it was only a matter of time before the conclusion was drawn by them.
However, many places of higher education are very much still under the microscope.
Thorough investigations are guaranteed to be taking place within the coming months that will focus on the many establishments who have been suspect to be part the organised cheating rings.
The situation will eventually reach a plateau, where the legitimate and illegitimate schools will be singled out from each-other, and education will resume it’s path. But until that moment arrives, there are many concerned and a (few frankly embarrassed) members of different education boards who would rather see the situation go away as soon as possible.