Skip to main content

Britain to cut number of student visas issued

Sunday, February 07, 2010
LONDON: Britain is to cut the number of visas it hands out to foreign students in a bid to stop people breaking the rules by working illegally, officials said Saturday.

About 280,000 people came into Britain on student visas last year, according to an estimate based on official figures, and a Home Office spokesman said the change will have a "significant impact" on the number.

He could, however, not confirm reports it would cut the figure by tens of thousands.
Under the new rules, applicants will have to speak English to a better standard before being let in and those studying on courses below degree level will only be allowed to work for 10 hours a week, rather than 20.

They will also not be able to bring dependants with them if they are enrolling on courses lasting less than six months. Dependants of students on courses below degree level will not be allowed to work.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson said in a statement: "We remain open to those foreign students who want to come to the UK for legitimate study -- they remain welcome.

"But those who are not seriously interested in coming here to study but come primarily to work -- they should be in no doubt that we will come down hard on those that flout the rules.

"I make no apologies for strengthening an already robust system."

The change, which comes after Prime Minister Gordon Brown ordered a review of the system at the end of last year, is expected to come into force within weeks.

Last week, Britain temporarily suspended student visa applications from northern India, Nepal and Bangladesh after a sharp rise in numbers, triggering anger among many students there.

But the Home Office spokesman insisted that the latest move was not targeting any specific part of the world.

"It's a general tightening up of the system, it's not aimed at any area in particular," he said.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...

Snake bite deaths

Monday, July 06, 2009 COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan government recorded some 33,000 snake bites in 2008, with most of the victims coming from remote villages.The Department of Government Information said in a statement that most of the snake bite cases could be fatal if neglected.The statement said snake bites are often neglected in Sri Lanka as victims do not seek treatment at hospitals where advanced medication is available. Instead, the victims rush to traditional type of treatment which could be a risk, reports Xinhua.Snake bites death at domestic level, outside hospitals, go unrecorded, said the statement.Most victims of snake bite are from the rural and remote villages where there is no electricity after dusk.Statistics show that Sri Lanka has over 90 species of snake with around 10 species possessing venom capable of killing a human being.In Sri Lanka the annual death rate due to snake bite envenoming is one of the highest in the world being 6 in 100,000 population.

Suicide bombings kill 18 in Iraq

Thursday, August 13, 2009 MOSUL: At least 18 people, most of them members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect, were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Thursday in a packed cafe in northern Iraq, a local government official said.At least 31 people were also wounded after the bombers detonated suicide belts packed with explosives in the cafe in Kalaa town, in the district of Sanjar, local district chief Dakheel Qassem Hasoon, told a foreign news agency."Two suicide bombers entered the Cafe Barbaroz at 4:30 pm (1330 GMT) and blew themselves up, killing 18 civilians and wounding 31. Most of the victims were Yazidis," Hasoon said.Kalaa, northwest of the insurgent stronghold of Mosul in northern Nineveh province is predominantly populated by the minority Yazidi religious sect, as well as Arabs and Kurds.The attack is the deadliest since Monday, when 51 people were killed across Iraq, including 28 members of the tiny Shabak sect cut down when two truck bombs det...