Questions raised over student visas

The recent attempted bombing of an aircraft by a terrorist with connections with Britain raise serious questions about the issuance of student visas.

Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, who comes from a wealthy Nigerian family, was already displaying signs of extremism when he was issued with a visa to study at University College in 2005.

After finishing his studies in 2008, he went to the Middle East prior to applying to return to the UK in May for another six month course, but his request was refused by the UK Border Agency as he was attempting to enrol in a course offered by a bogus college.

In spite of the fact he was banned, questions are raised as to the system which has seen over one and a half million visas granted to overseas students in the last eight years.

Earlier in 2009, a report by the Home Affairs Select Committee came down hard on the Government for failing to adequately deal with the explosion of bogus colleges popping up around the UK.

This led to tighter restrictions being put in place to cut down on the number of institutions allowed to recruit students from outside of the UK.

However critics believe the new points based system has done little close the gaps in the system.

Approximately 3,000 educational institutions across the UK have been given licenses under the points based system, but there are only 62 officials with authority to et the colleges and their 13,500 employees.

Migrationwatch chairman, Sir Andrew Green, has been critical of the system, claiming that 370,000 students are issued with a visa each year, and hardly any of the applications have even met with an Immigration Officer.