Axe of new rules falls on 140 UK colleges

United Kingdom, January 26: As per the amendments introduced in the UK immigration rules, nearly 15 colleges in UK have been closed and another 140 colleges have been handed over suspension orders in the last six months period.

This was revealed by the UK government officials on Monday. 

From March 2009, all UK institutions including colleges and universities in the country were required to get an approval from the UK Border Agency along with a ‘tier four’ license before proceeding forward with their plans of allowing any overseas students from countries not included in the Eastern Europe (EU). 

So, after the suspension and the closure of several UK institutes not in accordance with the new immigration rules, the official figures of UK educational institutes now stands at 2,000 which is half of the earlier list provided by the former Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills with nearly 4,000 colleges, stated Lord West, Security minister.

He said that the a whopping decline in the number of educational institutes is the result of inspections carried out by the officials in which all such institutes that revoked the basic requirement of15 tier four licenses. 

Replying to the question by Tory Lord Naseby as to why a number of bogus colleges were still operating in the UK, Lord West stated the inspection staff has been entrusted with the job of verifying various aspects of the educational institutes to ensure that they offer quality courses and fulfill the requirements laid down by the new rules. 

He agreed that there have been an alarming number of bogus colleges against which severe action is already in force. 

Explaining about the current process of verifying the documents of the applicants for UK student visa, Lord West reiterated that the country has been achieving good results after the new rules were brought into effect.