Association of Colleges

03 December 2009

Association of Colleges’ Director of Research and Development, Julian Gravatt, said: “We understand the need to control immigration and to prevent illegal immigration, but we are concerned that these proposals are heavy-handed and will have a detrimental effect on Colleges whilst not addressing the problems associated with immigration in a meaningful way. Overseas students form a small but vital part of the operation of legitimate Colleges, generating some £46m of fees a year in England alone (2007/08). Colleges are already subject to close regulation by various funding bodies, offer legitimate courses to legitimate students and have demonstrated robust monitoring systems which identify absconding students easily and quickly.

“Colleges provide much-valued vocational training to 10,000 foreign students every year. This is a source of considerable benefit to the UK economy and to the students themselves. This is very different to the so-called ‘bogus Colleges’ that mislead both students and the UK Border Agency. All of our member Colleges are subject to stringent regimes of public audit and inspection. We’ve been arguing for some time that the Government could restrict the activities of bogus Colleges by protecting the title ‘College’ under law.”
 

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