Points Based System: The Accreditation of T4 (Students) Sponsors

The Government has announced a mandatory new requirement for educational establishments wishing to bring in international students under the Points Based System (PBS) which is set to be introduced for students early in 2009.

In its Command paper “A Points Based System: Making Migration Work for Britain” published in March last year the Government made it clear that “..for Tier 4(Students), a prospective sponsor will need to demonstrate that they are a bona fide educational institution accredited by a recognised body”. The announcement confirms what exactly is meant by accreditation and what institutions without it will need to do in order to qualify as sponsors under Tier 4.

What is accreditation?

Accreditation is an independent mark of quality, inspection or review that can be used to demonstrate that an institution is a genuine education provider with sound teaching practices, recruitment procedures and progress monitoring of its students.

The Government accepts that, by law, publicly funded institutions are already regularly reviewed (as are private schools providing education to children up to 16 years old) and are bona fide so it is not the intention that the accreditation requirement should create any additional burden for these education providers. A limited concession to the accreditation requirement has also been agreed for very low risk overseas HEIs offering only part of their programmes in the UK.

All private education providers will need to be accredited by one of a limited number of Agency-approved accreditation bodies before they can qualify for as sponsors. The Home Office enlisted the assistance of Ofsted to help it determine which accreditation bodies provide an appropriate test of the bona fides of an educational institution and the following accreditation bodies have now been approved:

• Accreditation UK – which offers an accreditation service for English language centres;
• BAC – the British Accreditation Council – which offers a more general accreditation service to cover a wide range of different educational establishments;
• ASIC – the Accreditation Service for International Colleges – which also offers a general accreditation service to cover a wide range of different educational establishments.

Bogus colleges targeted by the Home Office

The Government has launched a crackdown on bogus colleges in an attempt to stop illegal immigrants coming to Britain to work while claiming to be students.

From 2009, colleges that recruit students from overseas will be required to register with the Home Office and prove that they are genuine educational establishments. The move arises from concern that hundreds of language schools have been acting as fronts for people to enter Britain to work illegally. The Higher Education Minister, Bill Rammell, said: “The Government welcomes the many genuine students who come to study in the UK each year. But a minority of less reputable colleges work with people overseas, helping them to get round the immigration rules.”

There are thought to be about 1,800 private colleges which are not accredited. They will be required to sign up to a Home Office register as “sponsors” of their international students. The Association of Colleges said last year that the current system was “wide open for abuse”.

Is the government considering Amnesty for illegal immigrants?

A campaign for an amnesty for 500,000 illegal immigrants to be allowed to work in Britain has won support from a think-tank with close ties to the Government.

The Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), which is influential with New Labour, urged Jacqui Smith to make the radical step as one of her first acts as Home Secretary. Allowing immigrants already working illegally to pay taxes would bring in up to £1bn in extra tax revenue, the IPR argues.

The campaign won support in the Labour deputy leadership campaign from Jon Cruddas and Harriet Harman, now Leader of the Commons and chairman of the Labour Party.