LSE Academic Registrar has responded to a new report examining the new visa system, promising that the School is working with other universities to come to a solution with the Home Office.
In the report ‘Fortress Academy’, former MSc Social and public communications student Valerie Hartwich examines the effect PBIS has had on all UK university admissions for this academic year.
Hartwich’s report states that since PBIS was introduced in March 2009, it has further burdened international students by raising the visa application fees from £99 to £145. It has put further financial barriers by demanding that masters students are able to prove £7200 in maintenance funds for a one year course.
The report has affected all University of London students, which have a high international student population. It also reports that students have had their visas rejected for bureacratic reasons – one student had his visa rejected for writing ‘Malaysia’ as his nationality rather than ‘Malaysian’. It also contains details of students falling victim to incompetant customer service from embassies and the UK Border agency (UKBA).
PBIS has brought “an increase in late arrivals and no-shows of international students for the academic year 2009 -2010”. Visa refusals have doubled with almost 50% of applications now being rejected. Overall, it is students from modest backgrounds, who cannot afford extra money to overcome bureaucratic hurdles who are most affected.
The points-based visa system has equally affected academics seeking to lecture in the UK. with one Israeli academic describing the process as “bureaucratic absurdity raised to the level of art”. Saima Yousaf, NUS International Students Officer commented that: “The new rules are a rigid nightmare, it seems a political stunt or a voter-grabing policy.”
Hartwich’s research largely consisted of interviews with affected students and concerned academics, supplemented with statistics obtained from various higher education bodies. She states that she had very little help from the LSE. Neither LSE Academic Registrar Simeon Underwood nor the LSESU’s International Officer at the time, Suraj Girijashanker, responded to her inquiries.
Hartwich believes that with the stricter regulations it is possible that some institutions may seek to reach an individual solution with the UK Border Association, “and there is enough opposition for there to be a united front.”
In a statement to the Beaver, Simeon Underwood, academic registrar, said the PBIS was introduced “at very short notice and with inadequate consultation,” worsened by “erratic decision-making on the part of Entry Clearance Officers at embassies overseas.”
Underwood stated: “After a turbulent time in August and September last year, we think that the net result was that some students started the academic year later than they might done otherwise. Our estimate, which can only be rough, is that about 50 students were in this category. Also, some students who were expecting to the School were unable to do so. Our estimate for this group, again rough, would be about 20 students. Most of these are deferring entry to 2010. Most of the offer-holders in these two categories were coming to us from India and Pakistan.”
The School also said that as far as they know, all academics who applied under PBIS were able to come to the UK.
The report says that PBIS will cause even more damage for admissions in 2010-2011 and ultimately calls for the new points-based immigration system (PBIS) to be scrapped. But Underwood was slightly more optimistic about the situation next year:
“In theory, they should be better. The Home Office has moved from a system based on letters to an on-line ‘sponsor management system’: but this has been introduced without comprehensive load testing, and the sector is nervous of whether it will be able to cope with the volume of traffic it will have to handle in August and September. They have also issued guidance which should reduce the amount of erratic decision-making overseas.”
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