As the Home Office announces the tightening of the points-based visa system for international students, a Manifesto Club report shows that the system has already barred thousands of genuine international students from the UK.
The points-based visa system (rolled out in March 2009) imposed burdensome new requirements on international students and academics - including higher visa fees, biometric profiling, and a requirement that all individuals prove they have up to £7000 in savings.
On Sunday, the Home Office announced new measures that would slash the number of student visas, and more tightly restrict international students' activities in the UK.
A new Manifesto Club report, Fortress Academy, published on Wednesday 10 February, finds that the points-based visa system has already blocked thousands of genuine international students and academics from the UK.
The new rules led to a doubling of visa rejections - from 25% to 50% rejections. Students were rejected for a variety of trivial reasons, including having written 'Malaysian' instead of 'Malaysia' under country, or for the colour background used in their photograph.
Thousands of students were unable to start term on time in 2009 - including 14,000 from Pakistan - because of problems applying these complicated new rules.
Fortress Academy shows how international academics are paying thousands of pounds in attempts to get through visa hurdles. One Israeli academic - who had to cancel his regular course at Exeter University because of the new visa system - described it as 'bureaucratic absurdity raised to the level of art'.
Valerie Hartwich, author of Fortress Academy, says:
· Would-be terrorists could easily comply with the financial and other visa requirements. In fact, these rules penalise the genuine student from a less-well-off background. This latest crackdown will make visa applications even more difficult - quite simply, international students will start going elsewhere.
The report also criticises the obligations on universities to monitor international students and staff, and to report any suspicions - such as missed lectures or 'suspicious behaviour' - to the UK Border Agency.
Josie Appleton, convenor of the Manifesto Club, says:
The Home Office is effectively asking academics to act like border police and to spy on their student body. This undermines the trust between tutors and students that is so essential for the pedagogic relationship.
Opposition to these rules is growing, and academics from Goldsmiths, SOAS and the University of Brighton have refused to comply with the new rules.
Over 10,000 people signed the Manifesto Club's petition against the points-based system.
The report calls for the points-based system to be 'completely reviewed, and ultimately scrapped, before any more damage is done to UK academic life'.
Notes to editors:
1. Fortress Academy: The Points Based System and the Policing of International Students and Academics, by Valerie Harwich, is published by the Manifesto Club on Wednesday 10 February. For preview copies of the report email Josie.Appleton@manifestoclub.com or call 0779 1032740
2. The Manifesto Club's campaign against the points-based system - including reports, testimonies, and petition - is at http://www.manifestoclub.com/visitingartists
3. The Manifesto Club campaigns against the hyperregulation of everyday life (www.manifestoclub.com)
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