London Metropolitan University has been banned from teaching
overseas students, leaving more than 2,000 undergraduates potentially facing
deportation.
The London University has had its right to sponsor students
from outside the EU revoked, and will no longer be allowed to authorise visas.
Ministers have concerns over issues such as whether or not
students are working instead of attending courses.
A task force has been set up to help students affected by
the decision.
The UK Border Agency said it had "failed to address
serious and systemic failings" identified six months ago.
As well as stopping the university, which has 30,000
students in total, from accepting new applications, losing the licence could
also affect thousands of existing overseas students at the university.
The National Union of Students (NUS) said it could mean more
than 2,000 students being deported within 60 days unless they found another
sponsor.
According to NUS President, Liam Burns:
This decision will create panic and potential heartbreak for
students not just at London Met but also all around the country’. ‘Politicians
need to realise that a continued attitude of suspicion towards international
students could endanger the continuation of higher education as a successful
export industry.
‘This heavy-handed decision makes no sense for students, no
sense for institutions and no sense for the country’. ‘This situation and the
botched process by which the decision was arrived at could be avoided if
international students were not included in statistics of permanent migrants’.
An NUS survey carried out earlier this year after changes to
international student policies found that 40 per cent of foreign students would
not recommend Britain as a study destination.
The advocacy group also said that in recent weeks they had
heard from an increased amount of students who now feel unwelcome in the UK.
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