Language-school checks to halt visa rackets

Language-school checks¹ to halt² visa rackets³
1 The Government is trying to crack down⁴ on bogus⁵ colleges that allow foreign students to get visas without going to lessons. It wants to introduce compulsory accreditation⁶ and inspections for independent institutions such as language schools, some of which are little more than fronts⁷ for visa rackets.
2 Just over a year after a register⁸ was introduced that was supposed to tighten controls⁹, there are plans to scrap¹⁰ it and introduce a sponsors register.
3 The current register, kept by the Department for Education and Skills¹¹, lists institutions for which overseas students can obtain a visa. It came into force¹² in January last year.
4 A Home Office task force¹³ set up in 2004 visited 1,200 independent ‘colleges’ and found a quarter of them to be bogus, although action was taken against only 43 institutions last year. Foreign students pay to enrol at a school, which gives them the paperwork¹⁴ necessary to obtain a student visa.
5 However some of the colleges turn a blind eye to¹⁵ whether they attend lessons¹⁶. In some cases, students who want to attend school have found they are unable to receive lessons. The DfES register requires colleges only to have genuine¹⁷ premises but offers no guarantee of the quality of education on offer. Colleges are supposed to report poor attendance among their students but some have said they received no response to their reports.
6 As part of the proposals¹⁸ for a points-based¹⁹ immigration system, the Home Office²⁰ is planning to set up a new register of colleges which requires them to be accredited and inspected by approved bodies²¹. It could force hundreds of back-street²² colleges to close or stop taking non-EU students. An e-mail from the DfES to colleges said: "The objective is to help the Home Office weed out²³ bogus students and colleges abusing this route²⁴ and adversely²⁵ affecting the image of UK education."
7 The British Council and English UK, the largest language-teaching association, have been lobbying the Government to make membership compulsory.
8 Tony Millns, the chief executive of English UK, said:"This should sort out²⁶ those which are providing a worthwhile²⁷ education from those which are little more than²⁸ fronts for visa rackets. We are keen²⁹ that everybody should be forced to come above a baseline³⁰ standard of quality. It would be no bad thing³¹ if a few of them closed down³²."
9 However, becoming accredited would cost colleges an estimated £1,000 to £2,000 a year. Some see it as an unnecessary extra layer³³ of bureaucracy. Desmond Mason, principal of the independent language school Westover College, Bournemouth, said:

"The DfES list was a total farce³⁴. It didn’t work, was badly organised and has been badly administrated. Instead of tackling these problems, they are creating a new list."
10 Mr Mason said he had frequently contacted the Home Office to report students³⁵ who did not attend class, but had received no response.
11 A Home Office spokesman³⁶ said: "We are introducing a new system because we appreciate there are areas in which the current system can be improved. The problems are mainly to do with the fact that there’s no requirement for accreditation, which makes it difficult for students to differentiate³⁷ between schools. It also undermines³⁸ the efforts of the colleges that are accredited."

By Catriona Davies, The Daily Telegraph, 18.04.06