The UK Border Agency has announced new rules regarding UK higher education institutions and foreign students studying under a student visa. These new amendments are tweaks to the student visa points-based system aimed at closing loopholes and reducing the number of bogus student visas.

From next year onwards, universities and colleges will have to monitor the attendance of overseas students enrolled in courses in their institutions. These measures are intended to help curb what the media (and the UKBA to some extent) is saying is rampant abuse of the student visa system for immigrants to come into the UK to work instead of study.

Universities and colleges will be asked to limit the number of resits that foreign students are allowed on exams, in order to prevent students from trying to purposely extend their stay in the UK. This will help deter and curb the problem of immigrants coming in under the student visa to work instead of study.

In addition, attendance monitoring will have to be conducted to ensure that foreign students are actively participating in lectures, labs, and other requisites of their courses. At many universities, attendance taking is non-existent for both domestic and foreign students at the moment. Many fear a big-brother style environment if attendance recording, or “roll call”, is taken. In addition, this segregation or special treatment for foreign students might result in tensions or resentment between local and foreign students, who have up to now been integrating and interacting well on campuses nationwide.

This new measure will only work to catch bogus students enrolled in legitimate higher education establishments, which is at the moment very rare because of the high tuition fees in legitimate universities as well as the strict academic entrance criteria. These measures will be less effective or entirely useless in bogus or sham colleges, who enrol students with no intention of providing them with an education, and make their money from immigrants who want to obtain a student visa to enter and work in the UK. These sham colleges will in all likelihood be able to orchestrate false attendance records.

More details on the measure will be announced next year. Three schools at the University of Edinburgh are undertaking attendance monitoring pilot schemes on behalf of the UKBA to evaluate the effectiveness of such a scheme.

Under new goverment proposals, the Citizenship and Indefinite Leave to Remain immigration systems are to be changed, and the Points-Based System (PBS), already used for work and student visas, will be introduced. Phil Woolas, the immigration minister, has announced that migrants will have to "earn" citizenship, which will be assessed by a range of criteria. One of the new criteria will be an English language test, as well as tests for patriotism.

There is a bit of controversy as it seems that participating in anti-war demonstrations might jeopardize the citizenship application for a migrant, even though freedom of speech and protesting is an inherent right of British democracy. Applicants would lose points if they break the law, and gain extra points for level of education, type of job, and other skills that they possess. At the moment it is relatively easy for someone on a work visa in the UK to qualify for citizenship or ILF after 5 years of staying in the country, but it is expected that with the new points based system, many migrants will fall short of the number of points required. According to the Home Office, this is to ensure that the UK attracts the right type of migrant needed to fill skill gaps in the country or highly skilled migrants who make a positive contribution.

More bizarrely, there are plans to give points for "contributions and helping development in their home country" to ease emigration to the UK. Applicants will also have to take a revamped "Britishness Test" that will be made harder.

At the moment, the rate of immigration to the UK is close to 220,000 per year, and these new plans are part of wider plans to curtail the number of foreigners granted citizenship in the UK.

Our staff here at Uk Visa Help are keeping track of developments, and as more information are made public we will post them on this website. In the near future, we will also have a test tool to see if you qualify for citizenship by the new points based system.