Massive Drop in General Student Visas

Dec 12, 2011

English Schools all over London and the UK say that numbers of students applying for General Student Visas for English courses fell anywhere between 50 and 95% since the latter part of 2011.  This trend is set to continue with the withdrawal of work rights for non-EU students taking English courses at 'lower than degree level' (i.e. at Private English Language Colleges) that was introduced last summer showing no signs of reversing.

So, such schools have lost the revenue generated from the long courses favoured by non-EU students, the majority of whom wanted to work and study benefiting from the financial support and the enhanced cultural experience of being part of a English-speaking company.

An unwelcome side-effect of this for specialist English schools is what is seen by many as the unfair skewing of the market in favour of government institutions (Universities) who retained work rights for their students & are now profiting from the wholesale movement of non-EU English language students to their on-campus courses.  The student must weigh up his priorities: spend double the amount to study English at a University and work for 10 hours a week or pay for a cheaper course and have no work entitlement.  Unsurprisingly, the lure of work & its exciting potential wins out for many and again, specialist English schools (and, of course English school students) are the losers.

To add to their woes, schools are facing yet another severe financial penalty: to retain HTS status and issue General Student Visa compliant courses, they are now required by law to be inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) who commonly charge three to four times the amount previously charged by the British Council for an equivalent inspection.  This cost, frequently over £12,000 is prohibitive for a great many language schools, a large proportion of whom have now chosen to opt out of the General Student Visa market altogether.

What to do?  English Schools are, of course, re-focusing on the EU.  Alongside this, higher value, shorter and so less visa-restricted courses such as Legal English & Business English are proliferating.  Many are increasing prices dramatically.  From our side, at the Islington Centre for English, we are opting to keep prices low as this is central to our market identity and to lose this would be to lose our defining characteristic.

What else can be done?  Hold on to your hats! From a school owner's perspective; keep finances sound & hope that in the not-too-distant future the Government will decide, as in the US, that students should not be defined as immigrants.  Indeed, the vast majority of students return home after contributing to cash-strapped local businesses who are in dire need of their foreign money, so they should be viewed both in economic and social terms very positively.  They are a win win for this country - bring in money, enhance the reputation of the UK global brand and then go home again. Foreign students are a great bonus for the local homestay families, hairdressers, cafes, clothes shops and pubs all over the UK - and even utterly crucial in English seaside towns like Brighton & Eastbourne and so, the political will to reclassify students will hopefully emerge.  Fingers crossed.

What should the Govt be doing to regain control of our borders?  In my view, they should target countries with terrible track records of playing the visa system. The cliched spam email senders or the 'schools' above a shop in Manchester or Luton offering low quality or non-existent tuition quite openly 'for a visa' with little pretense of education being on offer. Why not stop families switching their houses into each member's names in order to bring non-English speaking wives and husbands into the UK and other openly discussed scam techniques?

Sadly, the government's late efforts to rid ourselves of this particular bathwater has sent the baby flying out of the window and good English schools with high educational standards suffer enormously for the immoral acts of a few.

Looking forward to a more enlightened 2012!


Tags:
Category: news

Add Pingback

Please add a comment

You must be logged in to leave a reply. Login »

Category List


Tag List

Learn English London (1)
New blog (1)
Journalism classes London (1)
english study tips (1)
English food (3)
Journalism Masterclass (1)
narrative voice (2)
Covent Garden (1)
Tourist tips (5)
Events in London (1)
student study tips (1)
Historic moment (1)
Attractions in London (1)
Cool as a cucumber (1)
Students (2)
english grammar tips (1)
Basic English mistakes (1)
saga (1)
Vocabulary notebook (8)
English tips (4)
Beautiful London (8)
future tenses efl (1)
Cambridge Exam Preparation (1)
Cycling (1)
New vocabulary (4)
music festival London (1)
World Naked Bike Ride (1)
making predictions (1)
pronuciation (3)
London (5)
Improve your vocabulary (5)
english courses london (1)
Idiom (3)
Hello from Ally (1)
the people's tower (1)
grammar tips (1)
IELTS (2)
Journalism Course London (1)
Polite questions (1)
Halloween (2)
Somewhere to visit London (1)
Fun (1)
London Summer (7)
CAE (3)
study tips (9)
english grammar help (1)
english grammar online (1)
Things to see in London (4)
CEFR (1)
english school (2)
Tweed (1)
london events (1)
Victoria park (1)
Places to see in London (4)
Things to do in London (6)
Journalist Course London (1)
Barney Ronay (1)
English grammar (4)
grammar (1)
writing a mini-saga (1)
ICE (5)
past modals (1)
Somewhere to visit (9)
Insider info London (14)
english course london (12)
music festivals uk (1)
Christmas in London (3)
the shard (1)
past modal verbs (1)
Somewhere to go London (3)
CEFR level (1)
Islington Centre for English (6)
english school london (13)
Social programme (1)
Shopping in London (4)
Francais (2)
writing a mini saga (1)
english review (1)
Where to visit London (3)
Field day (1)
things to do london (1)
free english grammar (2)
Reading in English (1)
Winter in London (6)
English vocabulary (3)
english school online (1)
spelling (1)
defining relative clauses (1)
Learn english online (12)
study english (1)
English (1)
FCE (4)
study english onlline (1)
Free english lessons (10)
Peaceful London (2)
Business English (1)
Learn English (15)
Learning tips (10)
Journalism evening course London (1)
silent disco (1)
Listening in English (2)
mini-saga (1)
future tenses english (1)
Recording vocabulary (3)
english as a foreign language (3)
Sport Journalism Course (1)
efl (4)
London markets (4)
London Marathon (1)
ILEC (1)
reading tips (1)
exams (1)
New language (7)
Vocabulary (11)
Relaxing London (4)
Adjective (2)

Tag Cloud

Journalism MasterclassAttractions in LondonLondonWinter in LondonWorld Naked Bike RideLearn EnglishStudentsEnglish vocabularySocial programmeCEFRNew languageVictoria parkReading in Englishenglish as a foreign languagemaking predictionsTweedpronuciationenglish study tipsEnglish foodInsider info Londonnarrative voiceVocabulary notebookVocabularyreading tipsfuture tenses englishenglish course londonHistoric momentBeautiful Londonmini-sagaSomewhere to visitThings to see in LondonCovent Gardensagastudy englishPeaceful LondonLearn English LondonSomewhere to go LondonThings to do in Londonenglish schoolField dayfree english grammarJournalism evening course Londonexamswriting a mini-sagaIELTSIslington Centre for EnglishFCEPolite questionsSport Journalism Courseenglish school londonstudy english onllineenglish courses londonShopping in LondonBarney Ronayenglish school onlineILECFrancaisstudy tipsPlaces to see in LondonEvents in LondonCambridge Exam PreparationRecording vocabularymusic festival Londonlondon eventsspellingthings to do londonenglish reviewCEFR levelSomewhere to visit Londonfuture tenses eflRelaxing LondonHalloweenChristmas in LondonLondon SummerTourist tipsdefining relative clausesJournalism Course Londonstudent study tipsNew blogImprove your vocabularypast modalsgrammar tipsLondon marketsEnglishEnglish grammarthe shardLearning tipseflLondon Marathonthe people's towerHello from AllyJournalism classes LondonNew vocabularyListening in EnglishBasic English mistakesenglish grammar helpCAEIdiomFunAdjectivepast modal verbsICEWhere to visit LondonCyclingwriting a mini sagaCool as a cucumberenglish grammar onlineEnglish tipssilent discoFree english lessonsenglish grammar tipsgrammarJournalist Course LondonLearn english onlineBusiness Englishmusic festivals uk


Archive

We use cookies to enable essential services and functionality on our site and to collect data on how visitors interact with our site, products and services. By clicking accept, you agree to our use of these tools for advertising, analytics and support.