“Previously, one of 12 men charged in connection with a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners had been president of the[London Metropolitan] university’s Islamic Society, and a dossier of extremist Islamic literature was uncovered by The Sunday Telegraph on the campus.” Daily Telegraph
THE LONDON METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY has been banned from issuing visas to foreign students following an inspection by the immigration authorities. They found that a quarter of students either did not attend lessons and were merely using the “university” to obtain a visa, or have never been given permission to stay in the country, or had never had a good enough standard of English.
More than 2000 students now face deportation unless they can find an alternative university - they have been given 60 days in which to do so. Universities minister David Willetts is setting up a task force to help the genuine student find another institution to help them completes their studies.
From what I have been reading of this seat of learning, it is little wonder that what was taking place had not been stamped on earlier. The London Metropolitan University (LMU), as will be gleaned from its harsh, metallic, and modernist exterior, does not have the cache of Oxford or Cambridge, many of whose colleges were gifted by monarchs over the centuries . The LMU was founded in 2002, has 22,000 students, half of whom are foreign ranging over 190 different countries.
In other words, they have been a cash cow for the LMU. In June the university was fined £5.9 million for recruiting to many students, exceeding government controls on new applicants.
On another occasion Pro Malcolm Gillies, the vice-chancellor, sought to ban the sale of alcohol on campus because of “cultural insensitivity” and the “high percentage” of students who considered drinking immoral. The ban came shortly before a company called Chillisauce known for organising parties featuring strip shows, and S&M-style nightclubs, was linking up with LMU to offer a masters course in events management – what next? A masters courses in the distilling of Gin?
Between 2005 and 2008 this modern day St Trinians was overpaid by £36 million in public funds for students it had failed to recruit or dropped out. Yet this institution is not short of supporters, as one would expect when such a culturally diverse institution is threatened.
First off the mark, is of course the National Union of Students who accused the government of endangering “… the continuation of higher education as a successful export industry”. The NUT was followed by Mr rent-a-quote himself. Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee would have seen himself as being deeply amiss if he could not add twopeneth; “thousands of students in limbo” …“worst possible time” etcetera.
Then comes that perennial complainer Jeremy Corbyn; “The very existence of LMU will be called into question as a major part of its income relies on overseas students,” he said.
NO INSTITUTION OTHER than the Foreign and Commonwealth Office should be given responsibility for issuing visas. What on earth is happening? Why was any institution outside of government being allowed to issue, what have turned out to be, a free entry to the country – high fives all round!
An educational institution whose main interest is profit was given permission to grant visas. Now I am all for profit, but I also like to think I have an understanding of human nature.
It is no good saying that the LMU was policed, when it was allowed to behave in the way it did for so long. Giving short cuts to foreign students by allowing visas to be issued by an educational institution is asking for trouble however many millions or even billions the higher education sector brings to the economy through foreign students.
If it is to be the case of the more foreign students our universities take, the greater the financial income for the country – then why have visas at all. Why any restrictions if the more human flesh we can peddle the better, providing they can give the cash up-front?
On the back of this nation’s considerable reputation worldwide for the best in higher education, have come various institutions who, limpet-like, seek to plough a profitable but scandalous furrow; by profiting from this country’s well deserved and well earned reputation for the very best education. I am reminded of Wackford Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby, and Dotheboy’s Hall when I see the way many foreign students are unceremoniously and freely given a visa, in exchange for a education, many of whom have little intention receiving.
IN DICKEN’S TIME, THERE FLOURISHED minor “educational establishments”, like Dotheboy’s in Yorkshire, that sought its income through promising inexpensiveness with what we would call today a five star service. Wackford Squeers could be so cheap by starving and brutalising his charges and finding parents with little or no concern for the fate of a stepson or daughter.
I am by no means comparing the LMU with Dotheboy’s Hall, or comparing Squeers with Professor Malcolm Gillies – unless I wish to declare myself insane. But the way our higher education system has been run since the old polytechnics were turned into pseudo-universities because our egalitarian masters in parliament felt that all should be equal within their programme of social engineering; leaves me to believe that such institutions as the LMU are not Squeer-like in the quality of education they deliver; but merely in their economic ethos.
The lengths people are prepared to go to make a profit from education is merely exemplified by Wackford Squeers, and should, as Dickens’ intended, serve merely as a warning for all who came after him.
In higher education today, it is the production line of foreign students for profit that equates with Squeer’s ethos. The LMU, and any other such institution, should be deprived of their ability to award visas – if there is one formula open to abuse and corruption it is handing such powers over to such a commercially driven organisation as the LMU.
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