Student Visas

[ace00]

All but one of the men arrested were Pakistani nationals who came to Britain on student visas. This suggested a possible new tactic by al-Qaeda, which had previously used British-based extremists who travelled to Pakistan for training.
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Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister, has described the student visa system as "the major loophole in Britain's border controls".

Here's a crazy idea to close that loophole - if Mr Mohamed from Pakistan border region applies for a student visa, you might want to check him out a bit. Or is that not allowed? Perhaps UK should instead ban all Chinese applicants so as not to offend.

[AtW]

if Mr Mohamed from Pakistan border region applies for a student visa, you might want to check him out a bit.

The best you can do really is ask him to answer one of those questions on thos applications with checkboxes: "Are you involved in any way in terrorism?"

Even if you close down students visas completely it won't solve the problem since enough people have UK passports to commit an atrocity like it happened on 7/7.

Philip James Woolas, known as Phil Woolas, (born 11 December 1959[1] in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England[2]) is a politician in the United Kingdom - he is an idiot who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. It is highly likely that this cell was tracked from the moment student visas were issued, in this sense this program actually played useful role - it's one thing to obtain warrants on foreign national from 3rd world country than on UK citizen, so my guess it that MI5/6 would strongly prefer to deal with them rather than home grown terrorists.

[gingerjedi]

Forgive my ignorance but why do 10,000 Pakistani's come to the UK to get an education? Their home country can afford nuclear weapons but not schools?

[AtW]

Forgive my ignorance but why do 10,000 Pakistani's come to the UK to get an education?

Chances are a lot of those students come from very wealthy families who are involved in running Pakistan to one degree or another. If you don't give them visa then those parents will be offended and Pakistan won't help investigate plots against UK.

Once those guys return home they are likely to run things too and having lived in the UK they might have better attitude towards it.

[minestrone]

Forgive my ignorance but why do 10,000 Pakistani's come to the UK to get an education? Their home country can afford nuclear weapons but not schools?

Our Unis make a profit on them.

[denver2k]

All but one of the men arrested were Pakistani nationals who came to Britain on student visas. This suggested a possible new tactic by al-Qaeda, which had previously used British-based extremists who travelled to Pakistan for training.
......................
Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister, has described the student visa system as "the major loophole in Britain's border controls".

Here's a crazy idea to close that loophole - if Mr Mohamed from Pakistan border region applies for a student visa, you might want to check him out a bit. Or is that not allowed? Perhaps UK should instead ban all Chinese applicants so as not to offend.

Well, in some extent you may be right.

But fact of the day is that British universities are heavily dependent on Foreign students as they pay 4 or 5 times more than local student fee. Its not only universities, economy as well gets benefits from foreign money when these students live here without any benefits allowed. As,UK Govt cant fulfill fianancial needs of universities, they have to have foreign students. British universities have admission offices setup in countries like China,India,Pakistan,Malaysia etc just to lure these students into UK instead of going Australia,US,Canada n rest of the Europe.

There are certain courses in certain universities (specially Masters level courses i.e. MSc,MBA etc) where mostly foreign students outnumbered local students. So, we cant just rule out the importance of foreign students.

The fact that 10,000 students from Pakistan came last year means quite a few million £ pumped into universities (in terms of fees) and Home Office (in terms of Visa fees).

Having said that, the most important thing is, Govt need to strengthen immigration system which should filter genuine students from dodgy ones and security agencies should also have strong control (not only students but generally).

While we are it, have a look at suspected terrorist student who got arrested.

[AtW]

The fact that 10,000 students from Pakistan came last year means quite a few million £ pumped into universities (in terms of fees) and Home Office (in terms of Visa fees).

You'd be looking at £15k+ per student at least, or £150 mln for those alone. Small amount compared with bailing out banks, but big for Unis that don't get much cash (unless they are well known Ox/Cam).

[denver2k]

Yes thats right.

But for Govt, bailing out banks and spending on benefits of junkies seem more important than spending on universities.

And, Universities getting more independent as they are not accountable to Govt and can earn on their own as much as they can.

Its a completely different business and competition between countries going on.

[ace00]

The best you can do really is ask him to answer one of those questions on thos applications with checkboxes: "Are you involved in any way in terrorism?"

Even if you close down students visas completely it won't solve the problem since enough people have UK passports to commit an atrocity like it happened on 7/7.

Philip James Woolas, known as Phil Woolas, (born 11 December 1959[1] in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England[2]) is a politician in the United Kingdom - he is an idiot who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. It is highly likely that this cell was tracked from the moment student visas were issued, in this sense this program actually played useful role - it's one thing to obtain warrants on foreign national from 3rd world country than on UK citizen, so my guess it that MI5/6 would strongly prefer to deal with them rather than home grown terrorists.

Yeh - good points.
Is everyone on holiday (except me)?

[AtW]

The main issue is that the Govt is limiting how much Unis can charge domestic students - by extension I think this applies to other EU countries too: this is what made many Unis dependant on foreign students.

When I studied (as a foreign student at the time) I did not like that %-tage of foreigners was too high - it's harder form learning English point of view, this was especially true for Master level courses - there is zero incentive in UK system to study masters unless you want to work in academy or totally have nothing else to do.

IMO there should be a limit on %-tage of foreign students for any course - otherwise it becomes nightmare for teachers and not good for foreign students.

It's a very clever long-term strategy for UK to educate foreign children who would later will be more likely to view UK with greater sympathy.