A gaping loophole

From what I read, the hot topics of debate in Britain today are, “whether troops should still be in Afghanistan” and “immigration.”

I sense a growing dissent amongst the population about a range of issues concerned with immigration. Many feel that Britain has become a “soft touch” stating that immigrants should learn the language, abide by the law and accept the culture. Clearly there is a feeling that Britain is being taken over in particular by Muslim culture.

Along with illegal entry, there are many legitimate ways that people from non EU countries enter Britain – one of them is to arrive as a student.

Official figures showed that the number of students entering Britain from non-EU countries increased by more than 75,000 to 313,011 in the last 12 months, despite unprecedented demand for college and university places at home. The influx was exacerbated by a further 31,385 dependants accompanying foreign students.

The Government says that the student visa system had been open to “significant abuse”.

Many of these foreign students enter Britain to take legitimate degrees, with universities increasingly seeing them as a lucrative source of income at a time of cuts to higher education budgets.

As well as attending traditional universities, tens of thousands of foreign students have been admitted to 600 “lower tier” colleges, at which it is easier to gain a place but which are still accredited to hand out bachelor degrees. Some of these colleges offer qualifications in subjects such as circus skills, acupuncture and ancient medicine. Many of the students from these courses are given the right to work in Britain after graduating.

To make matters worse, about 4,000 illegal immigrants are also thought to have taken advantage of bogus colleges to slip into the country.