Today’s Buzz is a link to a Parliamentary Briefing on immigration policy and the UK’s visa ‘refusal threshold’. Universities UK states that visa refusals are by no means a good proxy for curbing the entrance of ‘bogus’ students. They suggest the threshold, currently at 10%, puts smaller institutions at risk of losing their international recruiting opportunities, and that ministers should consider a more flexible approach rather than ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to this threshold. The current situation is that if more than 10% of visa applications put forth by an institution are rejected, then the institution may lose their Sponsor status.
The threshold was reduced last November 2014 from 20 to 10% – and jeopardises any effort to recruit from outside the EU.