Bogus colleges
Background to the inquiry
1. Unlike publicly-funded further education colleges
and universities, private educational establishments are not subject
to regulation by the state.[1]
This allows for the relatively easy foundation of further education
colleges and English language schools, many of which are legitimate
and effective providers of education but, in some cases, they
have been established for other purposes. In the context of this
Report, the term "bogus college" refers to an illegitimate
educational establishment set up primarily to enable non-European
Economic Area (EEA) nationals to come to the UK on fraudulent
student visas. However, lack of regulation also allows for the
existence of colleges that are of "very poor quality and
are ripping off students who believe that they are coming for
a genuine educational experience".[2]
2. The phenomenon of bogus colleges was widely reported
in the media in the spring of 2009, in particular in The Times
newspaper in connection with eight Pakistani nationals arrested
in April 2009 under terrorism laws in Operation Pathway. These
students were later found to be in the UK on student visas fraudulently
facilitated by an organisation calling itself a "college"
but providing extremely limited teaching facilities for the number
of students on its books. The Times reported that those
running the scam charged at least £1,000 for admission places
and fake diplomas and £2,500 for false attendance records,
diplomas and degrees that were used to extend the student visas,
enabling them to stay in Britain for longer.[3]
3. We investigated this phenomenon and measures taken
by the Government to ensure that student visas are only issued
to foreign nationals coming to the UK for the purpose of genuine
study and regulation of colleges. To this end we took evidence
on 2 June 2009 from Mr Nick Lewis, of the Association of Colleges,
which represents further education colleges; Mr Tony Millns, Chief
Executive of English UK, which represents accredited English language
schools in the UK; and the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration,
Phil Woolas MP, along with the National Lead for Economic and
Family Migration at the UK Border Agency, Mr Jeremy Oppenheim.
Information provided by these witnesses indicated that it would
also be useful to take evidence from the Department for Business,
Innovation and Skills. We therefore questioned the Minister for
Further Education, Skills, Apprenticeships and Consumer Affairs,
Kevin Brennan MP, on 16 June 2009. We also received written memoranda
from Universities UK, the Pakistani High Commission in London,
the Home Office and the Accreditation Service for International
Colleges. We thank all those who contributed to our inquiry.
Regulations governing the issuing
of student visas
4. Between January 2005 and March 2009, only overseas
students who could show that they had a place to study, or were
already studying at an institution which appeared on the Register
of Education Providers (REP) operated by the then Department for
Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) were granted entry
clearances or extensions of stay as students. Institutions that
were publicly funded, inspected and audited, and those private
institutions which underwent voluntary accreditation and inspection
by the British Accreditation Council, the English in Britain Accreditation
Scheme administered by the British Council, the Adult Learning
Inspectorate, the Association of British Language Schools or the
Education and Training Inspectorate Northern Ireland, were automatically
entered onto the REP.
5. Private institutions without accreditation were
also able to get on the REP by providing evidence of their registration
as a legal business with Companies House; details of their staff
and staff qualifications; floor plans to show classrooms and other
facilities; and a copy of their prospectus to give an indication
of the teaching they provided.
6. The Home Office carried out inspections of colleges
on the REP: 1,200 were visited ahead of the Register being implemented,
of which 25% were found not to be genuine, and a further 69 colleges
were removed from the Register following visits from UK Border
Agency compliance officers.[4]
However, the UK Border Agency admitted that the Register was not
effective enough at preventing bogus colleges:
With the benefit of experience and hindsight,
the lack of quality assurance is a weakness to the current REP.
The Home Office is concerned that an unknown number of private
institutions are operating largely to provide low quality teaching
to those wishing to enter or remain in the UK as students whilst
working illegally. At present, the BIA's resources for student
compliance are largely occupied with carrying out reactive, intelligence-led
visits to suspect colleges on the REP. Whilst many such colleges
have been shown not to be bona fide and subsequently removed,
it is obvious that the BIA's resources might have been used more
proactively if such colleges had not been allowed to enter onto
the REP in the first place.[5]
7. The UK Border Agency has attempted to respond
to these concerns by introducing a greater level of regulation
of educational establishments under the new points based immigration
system. The phased implementation of Tier 4 of the Points Based
System, which covers students, began in March 2009. International
students are only able to apply for a visa under the new system
if they are sponsored by an accredited further or higher education
institution. In order to sponsor students, institutions need to
register with—and be approved by—the UK Border Agency
and in addition prove that they hold valid accreditation from
one of the UK Border Agency-approved educational accreditation
bodies, namely, Accreditation UK, the British Accreditation Council,
the Accreditation Service for International Colleges, Association
of British Language Schools, the Church of England Ministry Division
or Ofsted.[6] The UK Border
Agency has argued that:
The effect of demanding independent accreditation
will be to assure the Home Office that an institution is genuinely
providing education rather than offering low quality courses for
the purposes of facilitating applications by bogus students.[7]
8. Insufficient quality assurance procedures on
the part of the Department for Innovations, Universities and Skills
for private educational establishments on the Register of Education
Providers, which facilitated the issuing of student visas between
2005 and 2009, allowed bogus colleges to bring foreign nationals
into the UK on fraudulent student visas. We are pleased that the
UK Border Agency has recognised the deficiencies of this system
and introduced more rigorous regulation of educational establishments
sponsoring student visas under the Points Based System. However,
we remain cautious about the UK Border Agency's ability to deal
with this issue and will continue to monitor sponsorship arrangements
once Tier 4 of the Points Based System has been fully implemented.
The extent of the bogus college
phenomenon
9. The Times newspaper reported on 21 May
2009 that "thousands of young Pakistanis exploited a hole
in Britain's immigration defences to enrol as students at a network
of sham colleges".[8]
It stated that the eight terror suspects had enrolled at one college,
which had only three small classrooms and three teachers but 1,797
students on its books. The article added that another college
claiming to have 150 students had secretly enrolled 1,178 and
offered places to a further 1,575 overseas applicants, 906 of
them in Pakistan.[9]
10. The Minister of State for Borders and Immigration
told us that the Home Office issues around 200,000 student visas
each year. Witnesses were unable to give an accurate estimate
as to how many of these students entered the country via bogus
colleges but the Chief Executive of English UK, Tony Millns, said
"it could be tens of thousands quite easily".[10]
He thought that the majority of these students would be registered
for English language, computing, IT and business courses.[11]
11. We attempted to ascertain the number of bogus
colleges in existence. The previous Register of Education Providers
listed approximately 15,000 education and training organisations,
about 4,000 of which consistently offered courses to foreign students.
The UK Border Agency has licensed 1,594 educational establishments
as sponsors under Tier 4 of the Points Based System.[12]
This seems to imply that around 2,200 colleges on the REP which
were enrolling foreign students have either not applied to be
sponsors under the new system or have not been approved. Commenting
on these figures, the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration
said:
One could draw the conclusion … that the
difference is dodgy. I would caution against saying all of those
are dodgy. Some have chosen not to apply perhaps for commercial
reasons, but that would be my guess.[13]
12. Individuals who "facilitate the commission
of a breach of immigration law by a non-EU citizen" can be
prosecuted under the Immigration Act 1971. Between 2003 and 2007
253 cases presented to Magistrates Courts in England and Wales
and 62 individuals were found guilty of this offence. There were
518 cases sent to trial at Crown Court in England and Wales in
the same period and 387 individuals were found guilty.[14]
13. It is difficult to ascertain a precise figure
for the number of bogus colleges in existence. One method of forming
an estimate is to look at the discrepancy between educational
establishments listed on the previous Register of Education Providers,
which provided the only means of obtaining a student visa until
March 2009, and those listed on the register of sponsors under
the points based immigration system, which has replaced the Register
of Education Providers and requires more stringent checks of educational
establishments' credentials. There are around 2,200 colleges which
were on the Register of Education Providers but are not on the
register of sponsors. Whilst failure to transfer from the Register
of Providers to the register of sponsors does not automatically
mean a college is "bogus", we suspect that a significant
proportion of these colleges are not legitimate.
14. Colleges not on the register of sponsors will
no longer be able to facilitate student visas; however we are
concerned about the number of illegal immigrants who may already
have entered the UK on fraudulent student visas, the numbers of
which could be in the tens of thousands. Firm enforcement action
must be taken against any individual whose student visa has expired
to ensure that they leave the country, as well as against those
who have set up bogus colleges to perpetrate visa fraud. We have
received no evidence that the Home Office has made adequate preparations
to deal with this issue.
The alleged terrorism link
15. Coverage of bogus colleges in The Times
suggested that there was a link between visa fraud and terrorism.[15]
However, no substantial evidence has been put forward to validate
these claims either from the paper itself or the police. In the
first instance, all of the Pakistani students alluded to were
released without charge. The Minister of State for Borders and
Immigration told us that previous terrorism attacks in the UK
involved individuals on "genuine" student visas. He
said:
Our experience is that terrorists are not going
to draw attention to themselves, but the student visa route has
been in the past, I believe, as I have said honestly this morning,
subject to abuse. I personally have never seen any information
or intelligence that suggests that terrorists or would-be terrorists
have used that route. Commonsense says that you are going to get
a valid visa if you are intent on criminal activity.[16]
According to Mr Millns, the suggestion that those
planning terrorism acts might deliberately use bogus colleges
to enter the UK was "perfectly possible", but he considered
that the vast majority of bogus students are "disguised economic
migrants … here to work illegally".[17]
16. We found no substantial evidence to corroborate
the alleged link between bogus colleges and terrorist activity.
The Pakistani nationals who entered the country on fraudulently-obtained
student visas and who were arrested in Operation Pathway in April
2009 were subsequently released without charge. As far as we are
aware, foreign students involved in previous terrorist plots have
entered the UK on genuine student visas. Our evidence suggested
that most individuals entering the UK on fraudulently-obtained
student visas do so in order to work illegally.
Home Office initiatives to tackle
bogus colleges
17. Witnesses were in agreement that the new register
of sponsors under the Points Based System would go a long way
to tackling the problem of bogus colleges.[18]
The Minister for Further Education, Skills, Apprenticeships and
Consumer Affairs summarised:
The new system which is in place will make sure
that bogus institutions will find it very difficult indeed, if
not impossible, to be able to register and to bring in students
from outside the EEA.[19]
In the process of drawing up the register of education
sponsors, the UK Border Agency rejected applications from over
300 institutions, "many of them bogus colleges".[20]
18. However, The Times reported on 15 April
that "hundreds of colleges recently approved by the Home
Office to accept non-EU students have not been inspected by its
officers".[21] It
went on to state that "it has also emerged that the vast
majority of non-EU students will not be interviewed by the Home
Office but admitted on the basis of written applications and evidence
of sponsorship". The Times article notes that "advance
notice was given of the periodic Home Office visits made after
the college [of which the eight arrested men were students] opened,
so there was always time to make sure associates and employees
were sitting studiously in a classroom when an inspector arrived".[22]
19. We put this to the National Lead for Economic
and Family Migration, Mr Oppenheim. He told us:
Nobody gets on the register without two processes
going on: firstly, accreditation by one of the academic accreditation
bodies … and, secondly, we need to assess whether the college
is taking note of, understands and applies the immigration rules
as they are expected to do. That does not mean that we have visited
every single one of the establishments. There is for me a difference
between visiting King's College Cambridge and [the fictional]
King's College on Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green, to put
it bluntly.[23]
He said that the UK Border Agency would have visited
all of the establishments on the register by July 2009. As of
June 2009, 705 institutions had been visited, 100 of which visits
were unannounced.[24]
We note that 705 is less than half the total of establishments
registered to admit foreign students. Even omitting well-known
educational establishments, it seems unlikely that all those on
the register that need to be inspected will have been by the end
of July 2009.
20. We were also made aware of concerns in the education
sector about one of the accrediting bodies, the Accreditation
Service for International Colleges, by Baroness Warwick, the Chief
Executive of Universities UK:
ASIC did not exist in terms of a web presence
until its approval as an accreditation body was announced in July
2007 and despite repeated requests by Universities UK officers
to civil servants there is a lack of information and transparency
about its management governance and financial structures. Its
website provides no inspection reports for its accredited colleges
or a list of its inspectors. Several of the colleges that it accredits
have been associated with inappropriate activities. Universities
UK did not receive a reply from the Minister.[25]
We put this to our witnesses. Mr Millns said:
If you look on Companies House I think it is
difficult to see who the ultimate beneficial owners of that organisation
are … it is certainly the case that the accreditation bodies
that have been approved need to be reviewed and there needs to
be a lot more rigorous work done on ensuring that they are making
decisions based on the same standards, which I personally do not
believe they are at the moment.[26]
The UK Border Agency is currently undertaking a review
of accrediting organisations and will report in due course.[27]
21. In response to the concerns expressed by Universities
UK, Maurice Dimmock, the Chief Executive of ASIC, denied that
his organisation is less transparent than other accreditation
bodies and argued that "any behaviour by colleges which ASIC
has considered to be inappropriate or suspicious in any way has
regularly been reported to UKBA, leading in some cases to the
college being closed".[28]
In one instance, their suspicions had been aroused following a
change in ownership of the college after accreditation had taken
place. We were concerned that UKBA did not require re-accreditation
in such circumstances.
22. New arrangements for issuing student visas
under the points based immigration system do appear to provide
a more effective means of countering bogus colleges because of
the requirement for independent accreditation coupled with the
UK Border Agency's inspection regime. However, we are deeply concerned
to hear that advance notice of inspection visits has been given
in up to 85% of cases. This is unacceptable and does not give
us any confidence in the rigour of the inspection regime in combating
bogus colleges. The UK Border Agency should ensure that sufficient
resources are provided to allow for rigorous and, critically,
unannounced inspections. Any change in college ownership should
require the college to be re-accredited.
23. In addition, we note concerns amongst the
education sector about the credentials of one of the accrediting
bodies, the Accreditation Service for International Colleges.
We understand the UK Border Agency is currently conducting a review
of accrediting organisations, but the allegations are very worrying,
and we suggest that they look closely at these allegations and
request they make the results of the review available to us as
a matter of urgency.
BIS initiatives to tackle bogus
colleges
24. As well as enabling the breach of immigration
controls, the existence of bogus colleges is highly damaging to
the British education system as a whole. Mr Millns told us:
Internationally, the UK's reputation for quality
in education is its key selling point. It is why international
students come here. Colleges which are bogus, or simply poor quality
because they are not quality assured in any way through accreditation,
damage that reputation of quality so all legitimate institutions
suffer … International students bring in around £8 billion
a year to the UK and they are growing. We have just looked at
our first quarter statistics for 2009 for our core group as against
the first quarter of last year and it is 14.6% up on the first
quarter of 2008.[29]
The Association of Colleges argued that current Home
Office action to deal with the problem of bogus colleges is "welcome
but is possibly inefficient".[30]
Mr Millns argued that the government department responsible for
further and higher education, now the Department for Business,
Innovation and Skills, should do more to tackle the issue of bogus
colleges:
I would not say in front of the Home Affairs
Select Committee that this is entirely the Home Office's fault.
It has always struck me as extremely strange … that the Education
Departments … have never made a move in any way to license,
accredit or quality assure private sector education establishments.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is a national scandal
that nothing has ever been done.[31]
25. The Government has been made aware of this concern
several times. Nick Lewis, of the Association of Colleges, said
that he had raised the issue "on many occasions" with
Ministers since 1999, when he was appointed to an inter-departmental
group established to support the Prime Minister's initiative for
the recruitment of international students and international education
contacts.[32] When we
put this to the Minister for Further Education, Skills, Apprenticeships
and Consumer Affairs, he responded:
I do take seriously what the Association of Colleges
and English UK are saying about the potential continued existence
of bogus colleges … There is a case to look at now and possibly
to consider some further steps in relation to these institutions
which may still be attracting students from countries within the
EEA and still may not be providing the sort of education which
they should be providing, if they were legitimate institutions.[33]
26. One solution proposed by the Association of Colleges
was to use the Companies Act 2006 to restrict use of the term
"college" in future to properly accredited institutions,
in the same way in which the term "university" is restricted:
It is open to the Department of Business Enterprise
and Regulatory Reform [now the Department for Business, Innovation
and Skills] to add the word "college" to their list
of regulated words in the establishment of companies and that
would be a long-term impact to restrict and slowly reduce the
number of organisations that care to call themselves a college.[34]
The Minister undertook to investigate this suggestion.[35]
27. We are extremely disappointed that the Government
has ignored repeated warnings from the education sector about
the problem of bogus colleges. While the new sponsorship system
under the points based immigration system should help to prevent
bogus colleges, we consider that a more complete means of prevention
requires the compulsory regulation of private further education
colleges and English language schools by the state. We therefore
strongly recommend that the Government uses the Companies Act
2006 to restrict use of the term "college" in future
to properly accredited institutions and instigates an inspection
regime to enforce this. Alongside measures to tighten the UK's
immigration controls, this would protect EEA, as well as non-EEA,
students from receiving sub-standard education at unregulated
private colleges, which is highly damaging to the UK's international
reputation for education and therefore the UK economy.
28. Legitimate educational establishments are often
aware of bogus colleges operating in their area; for example,
during our inquiry we were made aware that Liverpool John Moores
University had alerted the UK Border Agency to its concerns about
a bogus college in Manchester through which some of the Operation
Pathway suspects had obtained visas. However, there are no formal
systems in place for them to share this intelligence with the
relevant authorities. Mr Lewis told us:
The Association of Colleges has a regional set-up
so that we have local intelligence across the cities and region.
It tends to be pooling information in an informal way. We do not
maintain a register of what we regard as bogus colleges internally,
but we do network and we do have that information coming in, but
… we do not collect it systematically … it is beyond
our resources to do that … We have attempted to put in information
and so on as best we can. The more systematic this can be done
the more easily we can help.[36]
29. We recommend that the Department for Business,
Enterprise and Skills devises a system to make better use of intelligence
provided by college networks, such as the Association of Colleges,
to close down bogus colleges. We intend to revisit this issue
once Tier 4 of the Points Based System has been fully implemented.
30. Foreign nationals who apply to study in the
UK in good faith but find themselves to be the victim of a scam
on arrival also provide a valuable source of information about
bogus colleges. However, these individuals may fear that reporting
such establishments to the authorities would result in the closure
of the establishments and lead to the students' status becoming
that of illegal immigrants. As they have entered the UK illegally,
however unwittingly, such individuals should not be allowed to
remain; but to encourage greater reporting, those who do come
forward with information should not be precluded from making successful
immigration applications in future.
1 Q 9 [Tony Millns] Back
2
Q 16 [Tony Millns] Back
3
"Sham colleges open doors to Pakistani terror suspects",
The Times, 21 May 2009, http://www.timesonline.co.uk Back
4
UK Border Agency, Accreditation of Private Educational Institutions
Involved in Recruiting International Students under the Points
Based System, Regulatory Impact Assessment, July 2007, p.4 Back
5
Ibid, pp.4-5 Back
6
Q 72 [Jeremy Oppenheim] Back
7
UK Border Agency , Accreditation of Private Educational Institutions
Involved in Recruiting International Students under the Points-Based
System, Regulatory Impact Assessment, July 2007, p.4 Back
8
Sham colleges open doors to Pakistani terror suspects, The
Times, 21 May 2009, http://www.timesonline.co.uk Back
9
Ibid Back
10
Q 7 [Tony Millns] Back
11
Q 14 Back
12
Ev 25 [Home Office] Back
13
Q 63 [Phil Woolas MP] Back
14
Ev 25 [Home Office] Back
15
Sham colleges open doors to Pakistani terror suspects, The
Times, 21 May 2009, http://www.timesonline.co.uk Back
16
Q 69 Back
17
Q 15 Back
18
See for example Q33 [Nick Lewis] Back
19
Q 119 Back
20
Ev 23 [Association of Colleges] Back
21
"Former pub became the centre of a web of bogus colleges",
The Times, 21 May 2009, www.timesonline.co.uk Back
22
Ibid Back
23
Q 79 Back
24
Ev 25 [Home Office] Back
25
Ev 21 [Universities UK] Back
26
Q 45 Back
27
Q 139 Back
28
Ev 27 Back
29
Q 17 Back
30
Ev 24 [Association of Colleges] Back
31
Q 9 Back
32
Q 11 Back
33
Q 121 Back
34
Q 25 [Nick Lewis] Back
35
Q 129 Back
36
Qq 49-50 Back
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