Home Office plans to send international students back home after spending up to £50000 obtaining a UK degree

The Sunday Times has leaked Home Office plans to force overseas students – who can spend as much as £50000 in course fees and living costs completing a UK degree at a minor university - to return to their home country after their courses finish before applying for a visa extension.

The latest Government plan to reduce net migration, reportedly being considered by the Home Secretary Theresa May, will be seen by international students, who bring in billions of pounds to the UK, as another slap in the face.

The news is bound to drive yet more of bright young people to the more student friendly visa regimes of Australia, Canada and other EU countries such as Germany.

Under May’s proposals, students from non-European countries would have to return home and apply for a work visa if they wanted to continue to live in the UK after graduation.

This means that if an employer wanted to sponsor a Tier 4 student visa graduate under a Tier 2 working visa, the candidate would have to travel back home to apply for another visa to re-enter the UK, a process which could take several months.

The report in The Sunday Times said Mrs May wants a future Conservative government to "move towards zero net student migration" by sending home those who come to Britain on student visas. 

A “source” close to the Home Secretary told the newspaper: "Making sure immigrants leave Britain at the end of their visa is as important a part of running a fair and efficient immigration system as controlling who comes here in the first place.

"Theresa is pressing for the next Conservative manifesto to contain a policy that will make sure that anybody coming here on a student visa will have to leave the country in order to apply for a new visa of any kind.

"She wants to make the colleges and universities that sponsor foreign students responsible for ensuring their departure.

"She wants to be able to fine colleges and universities with low departure rates and deprive the worst of them of their right to sponsor foreign students."

At present under the current Immigration Rules, the majority of graduate students are able to switch to a Tier 2 work visa whilst the UK. They also have options to apply for further leave to remain, for instance by switching to a Tier 1 or Entrepreneur visa.

The latest move will further erode the available options for graduate to remain in the UK. The previous Post Study Work (PSW), which allowed graduates to remain in the UK for up to 2 years in order to find an employer, was abolished along with other attractive features which helped make the UK a leading destination for fee paying students.

The coalition Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable, who holds responsibility for universities has previously warned about the anti-immigration message being sent out around the world which is putting off students from countries like India from attending UK universities.

A senior Lib Dem source said her plan made "zero economic sense" and could deprive the UK of highly-skilled graduates.

"Such a blunt instrument would not get our support," the source said.

"The idea that you have people from abroad studying in this country and they become engineers or scientists of huge practical value to the economy, and rather than have them stay here you immediately turf them out makes zero economic sense."

Whilst the proposals have yet to become law, any foreign student currently studying in the UK or considering coming to the UK to study at a British university will be affected by the new visa rules upon graduation. In other words, even if they idea is never followed through the damage has been done and UK universities will have lost international students and much needed fees.

Earn While You Learn with an NVQ QCF Vocational Qualification

NVQ’s or National Vocational Qualifications are work-related, competence-based qualifications introduced to train people in the workplace. They reflect the skills and knowledge needed to do a job effectively, and show that a candidate is competent in the area of work the NVQ represents.

Millions of ‘learners’ or students (resident and international learners on student visas) in the UK have taken NVQ courses covering a wide diversity of subjects ranging from Health and Social Care, Customer Service, Administration, IT and Hospitality and Catering.

Vocational qualifications in the UK have recently been revamped by the introduction of QCF or Qualifications and Credit Framework model, which gradually replaced NVQ’s during a transition period giving learners time to complete their course.

There are thousands of learners still finishing NVQ’s, which will still be a valid qualification, however, to make matters even more confusing, the qualification framework levels have also been changed. For instance, an NVQ level 4 management level qualification is equivalent to a QCF level 5.

Advantages and disadvantages of QCF and NVQ

The QCF, like an NVQ, is a system for recognising skills and qualifications in a vocational setting. It does this by awarding credit for qualifications and units (small steps of learning), with each unit holding a credit value. This value specifies the number of credits gained by learners who complete that unit.

The advantage and flexibility of the QCF system allows learners to gain qualifications at their own pace along routes that suit them best. Unlike an NVQ the QCF’s credit based system means that a student who fails to complete the entire award, certificate or diploma can gain recognised credits for their work rather than walking away empty handed.

The main drawback for the QCF will be employer recognition and acceptance. NVQ’s are a well known ‘brand’ understood by industry as the standard for vocational, as opposed to academic, learning. Critics have argued that the qualifications could have been updated without dropping the established ‘NVQ’ label.

NVQ’s and QCF qualifications are based on 'national occupational standards' laid down by the Government bodies and the Sector Skills Councils. These standards describe what competent people in a particular occupation are expected to be able to do. They cover all the main aspects of an occupation, including current best practice, the ability to adapt to future requirements and the knowledge and understanding that make competent performance.

Within reason, NVQ’s and QCF qualifications do not have to be completed in a specified amount of time. They can be taken by full-time employees or by school and college students with a work placement or part-time job that enables them to develop the appropriate skills. There are no age limits and no special entry requirements.

How are QCF’s/NVQ’s achieved?

QCF/NVQ’s are achieved through study, training and on-going assessment. Assessment is normally through on-the-job, work related observation and questioning. Candidates produce evidence to prove they have the competence to meet the standards. Assessors ‘sign-off’ units when the candidates are competent. The assessor tests candidates’ knowledge, understanding and work-based performance to make sure they can demonstrate competence in the workplace.

There are no exams, dissertations or complicated written work needed to gain a vocational qualification.

The UK qualifications regulator QFQUAL describes the new structure as simple yet flexible.

Every unit and qualification has a credit value and a level. One credit represents ten notional hours of learning, showing how much time the average learner would take to complete the unit or qualification. Levels indicate difficulty and vary from entry (1) to level 8. There are three types of qualification:

• Awards (1 to 12 credits)
• Certificates (13 to 36 credits)
• Diplomas (37 credits or more)

You can have an award of any difficulty level from 1 to 8. This is because the type indicates the size of qualification, not its difficulty.

Comparing QCF with other qualifications

The title of a qualification should indicate its difficulty, how long it will take the average learner to complete, and its general content, using the following information:

• Qualification level (from lowest, entry level to level 8 at the top)
• Qualification size (award/certificate/diploma)
• Content of the qualification

The title of a qualification you will enable you to judge the degree of difficulty, how long it will take the average person to complete and a good idea of the content.

To illustrate the level of difficulty of the units and qualifications in the new framework OFQUAL states that that GCSEs (grade A*–C) are at level 2, GCE A levels are at level 3, a Bachelors Degree would be at level 6, a Masters Degree at level 7 and a PhD is a level 8.

Where can you gain a QCF qualification?

You can find approved training centres all over the country. Colleges and centres must be assessed and approved by an official awarding body such as OCR, EDEXCEL or EDI in order to run QCF courses.

To ensure high standards are maintained, centres must demonstrate to the awarding body that they have competent tutors/assessors and IV’s (Internal Verifier) in place before approval is granted.

London Cactus College is an accredited NVQ/QCF Training Centre based in the north London/Edgware area, which has helped over 400 hundred students gain vocational qualifications in the last couple of years.

Who can take an NVQ/QCF vocational course?

In general anyone can take a vocational course provided they are able to demonstrate competence in a work based environment.

Some units within the QCF structure are purely 'knowledge based' and may be taken without the need for work based assessment.

The beauty of NVQ QCF courses is that you can earn while you learn and gain a valuable work based qualification, which employers love!

Bulgarian and Romanian students

NVQ and QCF courses previously proved popular with Bulgarian and Romanian citizens seeking to gain a practical work based UK qualification whilst studying and working on a 'yellow card' registration (BR1).

Like other overseas students, many EU students already have academic qualifications in their own country which have not led them into the work place. Taking a vocational course will give them the practical skills to enable them to find a job.

The vocational or work based element of the course allows Croatian students to work full time whilst studying. Employers usually welcome NVQ/QCF students because their course relates to the work they are doing and training helps drive up standards. Students like vocational courses because they can ‘earn while they learn’.

After 12 months of continuous full time study and work Croatians can apply for UK residence Blue Card.

For more information on immigration rules for Croatian citizens who wish to work and study in the UK email me, visit the Home Office website or see an OISC registered immigration adviser.