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New U.K. rules for overseas students

Started by sajiv, Apr 01, 2009, 02:27 PM

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sajiv

New U.K. rules for overseas students

LONDON: Stringent new rules for overseas students from India and other non-European Union countries came into force on Tuesday as part of a phased introduction of the points-based immigration regime.

Under the new system, those applying for a student visa will have toprove that they have a place at a licensed institution and can financially support themselves. Applicants will need to show that they have sufficient funds to pay for their first year of fee and living costs for up to nine months.

The rules require that the "money must be held in cash'' and that "shares, bonds, pension funds and similar savings accounts will not be accepted''. The amount of money they will be required to have in their account will depend on the length of their course of study and whether they will be based in London or outside.

Those wishing to bring their dependants will need to pay extra for each dependent.

The Home Office said that the new rules were aimed at preventing abuse of student visas.

These new measures make sure people who come here to study and the people who teach them play by the rules. This new tier of the points based system allows us to know exactly who is coming to the U.K. to study and crack down on bogus colleges. I have made it clear that I will not tolerate either the fraudulent applicants trying to abuse Britain's immigration rules, or the dodgy colleges that facilitate them," said Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

Universities UK, which represents British universities, has protested that the new rules are likely to hit students from the subcontinent and Africa as often they do not have sufficient savings and work part-time to support their studies.

Source:hindu