UK to Crackdown on Student Visas
The United Kingdom has announced plans to substantially reduce the number of student visas. Home Secretary Teresa May has said that students must be able to speak English and be able to support themselves and their studies without paid employment.
The number of student visas issued by the UK has more then tripled in the past 10 years and May put this down to an "increase in abuse in the higher-education sector." She also said that "bogus" institutions that let in unqualified students and illegal aliens were to blame. May also went on to say:
We want to attract only the best and the brightest to Britain. We are tightening up the system, tackling the abuse and supporting only the most economically beneficial migrants.
This student visa crackdown follows Prime Minister David Cameron's wish to reduce net immigration below the "tens of thousands." In 2009, Britain admitted nearly 200,000 immigrants. Under the new plans, students studying for a bachelor's degree will only be allowed to remain in the UK for 3 years (the standard for English, Welsh, and Northern Irish universities) and UK border and customs agents will be able to refuse entry to students who "cannot speak English without an interpreter and who therefore patently do not meet the required minimum standards."
You can read more about this decision here.