Category Archives: International students

Palestinian student stripped of UK visa after Gaza remarks wins human rights appeal

Posted on by

Home Office failed to show presence of Dana Abu Qamar ‘not conducive to public good’, according to tribunal ruling

A Palestinian student who was stripped of her student visa after remarks she made about the Israel-Gaza war has won a human rights appeal against the Home Office’s decision.

The Home Office failed to demonstrate that the presence of Dana Abu Qamar, 20, was “not conducive to public good” after the law student’s visa was revoked in December 2023, according to a tribunal ruling.

Continue reading...

Labour’s ‘change of tone’ revives foreign students’ interest in UK universities

Posted on by

Admissions officers report rise in number of inquiries from international students since general election

Applications by international students to UK universities have been revitalised in a welcome boost for the sector’s ailing financial health by the Labour government’s “change of tone” on immigration since the general election.

Vice-chancellors and admissions officers said a rise in the number of inquiries about courses and feedback from overseas recruitment agents suggested that the change in the government’s stance since the 4 July election had been widely noticed by potential international students and their families.

Continue reading...

Higher-tariff universities admit 13% more UK school-leavers than 2023, figures show

Posted on by

Number of pupils accepted by ‘high tariff’ providers passes 100,000, after better than expected A-level results and fewer international students

Sixth-formers are rushing to take up places at the most selective universities, with figures showing a substantial increase in the numbers enrolling compared with last year after receiving their A-level results.

Experts said that “high tariff” universities, including those in the Russell Group of research intensive universities, were allocating more places to UK school-leavers this year after recruiting fewer international students.

Continue reading...

Senator gives evidence at defamation trial – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed.

For more on this, Daniel Hurst looked into the issue yesterday. A spokesperson for the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, had said the government was “firmly committed to minimising harms from online wagering”.

The government continues to engage with stakeholders regarding the recommendations from the online wagering inquiry as we formulate our response.

I hope that’s not the case. I hope the long consultation is because the government’s actually going to do the right thing and make gambling ads history, just like we did with tobacco. We live in hope it’s not too late, but the rumors are not encouraging.

Continue reading...

Alarm bells over Australian universities’ financial dependence on international students

Posted on by

Critics across the sector say institutions have become trapped in an unstable business model as they try to make up for loss of government funding

Australian universities’ dependence on international student fees has “fuelled a culture of revenue, profit and competition” and created an unstable business model, the head of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has warned.

Critics representing various interests in the sector joined in expressing anxiety at the position universities had found themselves in as the federal government aggressively tries to wind back the number of international students.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Lures and violent threats: old school cheating still rampant at Australian universities, even as AI rises

Posted on by

Integrity experts say sites offering cheating services to students are hard to trace, and some are run by criminals willing to make threats of violence

Kane Murdoch’s job takes him, his colleagues and his family to some frightening places.

“A comment … threatened to gang-rape my wife and decapitate me,” he wrote on his blog in April. Members of his team and their families had also been threatened with violence as a direct result of their work, he said.

Continue reading...

UK universities valued more than institutions like parliament and BBC, finds survey

Posted on by

King’s College London poll finds people rank universities behind only the NHS, armed forces and royal family

The British public values the UK’s universities more highly than the legal system or the BBC, according to a survey of attitudes towards higher education by King’s College London.

Prof Bobby Duffy, the director of King’s College London’s policy institute, said universities came behind only the NHS, the armed forces and the royal family in a league table of UK institutions considered to be among the best in the world by the public.

Continue reading...

Nigeria takes up case of its Teesside University students ordered out of UK

Posted on by

High Commission to meet leaders at university after currency crash in home country meant students couldn’t pay for tuition

Delegates from the Nigerian high commission in London are to meet bosses from Teesside University to discuss the treatment of a group of students who were ordered to leave the UK after failing to meet tuition repayments.

The Nigerian students were left distressed and in some cases suicidal after they were involuntarily withdrawn from their courses and ordered to leave, in what has been described as a “serious diplomatic issue”.

Continue reading...

‘Self-defeating’: senior Tories warn Sunak against clampdown on international students

Posted on by

Party members say visa restrictions will damage economy and lead to the closure of already-struggling universities

Universities will be plunged into greater financial distress and Britain’s economic recovery dented should ministers proceed with a new “self-defeating” clampdown on international student visas, senior Tories are warning.

Vice-chancellors believe a renewed attempt to reduce visa numbers is just weeks away after ministers ordered their immigration advisers to make an emergency assessment of how a visa designed to attract students to the UK was operating. The report is expected to land on the desk of home secretary James Cleverly next week.

Continue reading...

UK universities to review international student admissions after recruitment controversy

Posted on by

Move comes after accusations of lowering entry standards to foreign applicants who pay far higher tuition fees

Vice-chancellors are to review international student admissions by British universities, including how to identify “bad practice” among agents employed to attract people from overseas, after controversy over recruitment.

Universities UK, which represents university leaders, announced a series of reviews into the use of recruitment agents and international foundation programmes, as well as the code of practice governing admissions.

Continue reading...

DfE to investigate claims of bad practice in recruitment of international students

Posted on by

Move follows reports overseas students face lower entry requirements, a claim universities reject

The Department for Education is to investigate allegations of bad practice by agents who recruit international students to study at British universities.

It follows reports over the weekend claiming that overseas students are being admitted to prestigious institutions while subject to lower entry requirements than domestic students.

Continue reading...

English universities warned not to over-rely on fees of students from China

Posted on by

Higher education regulator asks 23 institutions for contingency plans in case of sudden interruption of income

England’s higher education regulator has warned universities against over-reliance on tuition fees of students from China, as Rishi Sunak backtracked on his earlier pledge to close UK branches of the Beijing-sponsored Confucius Institute.

The Office for Students (OfS) wrote to 23 universities with high numbers of Chinese students on Thursday, asking to see their contingency planning in case of a sudden interruption to overseas recruitment.

Continue reading...

GPs aiding international student agents to exploit Australian visa ‘loophole’, inquiry hears

Posted on by

Agents earn extra commission by shuffling foreign students between providers in what Labor calls an unethical ‘shadow economy’

Labor has vowed to crack down on the unregulated world of international education agents after revelations that general practitioners may be involved in student recruitment schemes.

Foreign agents have been used by Australian universities for decades to drive enrolments and assist students offshore with application processes and accommodation.

Continue reading...

Student faces deportation from UK after arriving early for course at university’s request

Posted on by

A mix-up on dates meant Rasikh Aziz travelled from Pakistan too soon. Now the University of Law has reported him to the Home Office

An international student who travelled to the UK two months early after being given the wrong enrolment date by his university is facing deportation after it reported him to the Home Office.

Rasikh Aziz was incorrectly told by the University of Law that he must arrive by October 2022 for a postgraduate course beginning in January 2023, according to documents seen by the Observer. He subsequently flew to the UK and presented himself at the university’s Birmingham campus, where he had an induction, underwent an ID check and was issued with a student card. In January, he began attending classes without a problem.

Continue reading...

Longer work visa could tempt more foreign students to UK, survey finds

Posted on by

Chancellors urge review of two-year visas as overseas graduates say three-year offer would be more attractive

International students would be more likely to consider studying in the UK if they were allowed to stay and work for three years instead of two, a survey suggests.

Foreign students have been able to stay on and work in the UK for two years after completing their course since 2019, when the government reinstated the two-year post-study work visa after years of pressure from universities.

Continue reading...

English test scandal: Home Office accused of ‘shocking miscarriage of justice’

Posted on by

Students wrongly accused of deception should be helped to clear names, says shadow minister

The Home Office was accused of presiding over a “shocking miscarriage of justice” by MPs during an urgent debate on the English language testing scandal which saw thousands of international students wrongly accused of cheating in an exam they were required to sit as part of their visa application process.

Those students who were wrongly accused of deception, many of whom were subsequently detained and deported, should now be helped to clear their names, shadow Home Office minister Stephen Kinnock told parliament.

Continue reading...

Threats, insults and China’s influence on Australian universities

Posted on by

A landmark report by Human Rights Watch has detailed accounts of pro-democracy students and academics in Australia who are being harassed and threatened over their comments relating to China. In some cases, people have been doxxed, and others claim their actions have been reported to Chinese authorities. Reporter Daniel Hurst explains why academics and students are experiencing this harassment, and what Australia can do about it

You can also read:

Continue reading...

UK universities recruit record numbers of international students

Posted on by

Ucas says institutions have seen a 9% increase, as 44,300 students are set to start studies

UK universities are on course to recruit record numbers of international students during the global pandemic, defying predictions of financial disaster, the latest admissions figures reveal.

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) said UK universities enjoyed a 9% increase in the number of undergraduate students from outside the UK and the EU starting their studies this autumn, rising to a new record total of 44,300.

Continue reading...

English test students may have been wrongly accused, says watchdog

Posted on by

Home Office ‘did not have the expertise’ to check data used to accuse students of cheating

A government watchdog has criticised the Home Office for failing to protect students wrongly accused of cheating in an English language test that they were required to sit as part of a visa application process.

About 2,500 students have been forcibly removed from the UK after being accused of cheating in the exam and a further 7,200 left the country after being warned that they faced detention and removal if they stayed. Many have protested their innocence; 12,500 appeals have been heard in UK courts, and so far 3,600 people have won their appeals.

Continue reading...

Erasmus scheme in chaos as UK students left in limbo

Posted on by

The 17,000 students about to do a year abroad face huge uncertainty over funding and accommodation

For Alice Watkins, a Manchester University student, a year in Paris, then Madrid, as part of her degree was a dream. Now, with the turmoil of Brexit, she is preparing to arrive in France this summer with nowhere to live and no idea whether the money will still be there to support her.

“It’s horrible not knowing,” Watkins says. “We’ve been told to take at least £1,200 of our own cash to cover us for the first six weeks, and that we can’t realistically sort any accommodation before we arrive. Turning up abroad with nowhere to live is a big stress.”

Continue reading...