here - United Kingdom Parliament

1741 Student Visas
6 JUNE 2013
Student Visas
1742
[Mr Harper]
were working in low-skilled jobs, and significant numbers
of students were renewing their visas over a period of
time without any academic progression at all. It does no
credit to our immigration system or our genuine academic
institutions that such abuse is possible. We must deal
with that, as well as welcome those we want to welcome
to Britain.
Dame Joan Ruddock: I want to relay to the Minister
my experiences and those of my constituents in respect
of those moving from one course to a higher course
who need to renew a visa. It is taking at least three
months, and during that time the student has no access
to their passport and cannot travel for academic or
personal reasons. Is the Minister really satisfied that
that is good enough? Will he put more resources into
this whole area of endeavour in the Home Office?
Mr Harper: The point the right hon. Lady makes
about in-country performance is absolutely right; it is
true that the performance in the last financial year of
what was the UK Border Agency was not good enough,
as I know very well from conversations and correspondence
with Members. Out-of-country performance has remained
very good, however. Part of the reason why the Home
Secretary made the changes she has made to the border
agency was to fix the problems in the UK visas and
immigration part of the business. The good news is that
we have put a lot of resource and effort into turning
that around, and the performance of the Home Office
for in-country operations—which used to be a UKBA
responsibility—has got immeasurably better. The latest
figures are much better. It has taken some time to do
that, but I ask the right hon. Lady to let me know of
any specific outstanding cases, and I will look at them
and see if there is anything we can do.
Chris Bryant: The Minister slipped in the words
“academic progression”. I fully understand why, in the
vast majority of cases, someone would want to go from
an undergraduate degree to a postgraduate degree and
so on, but there are cases, in particular for vocations
and some STEM degrees, where a student who had first
done an undergraduate degree in their home country
might want to come to the UK to study for another
undergraduate degree, which would not count as academic
progression. I worry that people might therefore be
being excluded who would be perfectly decent and
sensible to have studying here.
Mr Harper: I was referring to people who, as I have
seen when we have removed them, have been in the UK
for a decade or more, perpetually renewing a student
visa and clearly making no progress. That is an abuse of
the system. We were talking about that, not about
trying to micromanage someone’s academic career.
Let me do something that I cannot always do and
give some positive news to the hon. Member for Islington
North (Jeremy Corbyn) about London Metropolitan
university. I will not rehearse the past in great detail, but
I have put a lot of work into this—it happened just
about the time at which I was given this job and at
which my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashford
(Damian Green) became the Minister for Policing and
Criminal Justice—and I am absolutely convinced that
the UK Border Agency, as it was, took exactly the right
decision to revoke London Metropolitan university’s
sponsor licence. It was not fulfilling its responsibilities
by any measure. Nobody in the sector has defended it
and its behaviour was, I am afraid, well known.
The positive news, which shows that the system works,
is that we have worked closely with London Metropolitan
university and it has made significant improvements to
its system and to the administration of how it delivers
on its requirements. It has now been awarded an A-rated
sponsor licence, which means it can sponsor international
students, and it has 12 months to build up a track
record and apply again for highly trusted sponsor status.
That is very positive. The Home Office has worked very
closely with the university—[Interruption.] I think the
hon. Member for Rhondda is asking how many students
there are. The university can recruit only 15% of the
number it could originally have while it is an A-rated
sponsor.
The hon. Member for Islington North asked me
about this subject first. I do not have the specific details
of all the students that were there and what has happened
to them, but we have those data because we wrote to
every single one. I will write to the hon. Gentleman,
since the university is in his constituency, and I will put
a copy of my reply in the Library—[Interruption.] I
will also send a copy to the hon. Member for Rhondda
and I will include the details of how many have left the
country.
Jeremy Corbyn: I am grateful for that information
and look forward to receiving the Minister’s letter. Does
this mean that students who started their second year
last September will now be able to complete the third
year of a three-year degree course and that we are back
on track towards getting highly trusted status restored
in a year’s time?
Mr Harper: It might be more sensible if, rather than
trying to answer a lot of specific questions, I set out the
detail about the university when I write to the hon.
Gentleman. As I said, I shall copy the letter to the hon.
Member for Rhondda and will put it in the Library so
that other Members can see it. The story is positive, as
the university has started to deliver on its compliance
requirements.
The Home Office is now working closely with universities
and Universities UK on a co-regulation initiative to set
out their responsibilities clearly for them. We have had a
number of workshops with those universities and they
have found that very helpful. I have certainly had positive
feedback from UUK, the Russell Group and individual
universities I have visited, and they have seen a change
in their relationship with the Home Office. It is important
that we continue to improve that and I have asked the
Home Office to continue to do so.
Jason McCartney: On the theme of positive news,
will the Minister join me in welcoming the good news
from the award-winning Huddersfield university, which
saw its number of international students increase from
1,430 in 2010-11 to 1,845 in the last academic year, an
increase of 29%? It is an award-winning university and
it contributes massively not only to Huddersfield but to
growth and enterprise in the whole of Yorkshire and the
north of England.