UK: Universities 'over-report' on foreign students

A new report shows that British lecturers and staff have raised concerns over student absence or activities on more than 35,000 occasions in the past two years, writes Tom Whitehead for The Telegraph. The report raises fresh concerns that the student visa system is still open to widespread abuse by those looking to stay in the UK illegally.

But civil liberties group Manifesto Club, which obtained the figures, warned they are more a reflection of over-reporting of minor incidents by universities because they are paranoid about losing their right to sponsor foreign students. Colleges have a duty to report suspicious or bogus students or risk being stripped of their licence to bring in lucrative overseas students.

The Manifesto Club report, Students under Watch, concludes that the regime has resulted in a "humiliating" surveillance state with the country's universities, with staff and students effectively spying on one another.
Full report on the Telegraph site