Metropolicing

Published on 01/09/2012 00:00

When I went up to St Andrews in 1960, two of my earliest pals were foreign students: a Nigerian sprinter who became a medic and an Indian physicist who went on to Cal-Tech.

Today a third of a million young people from outside the European Union are on student visas most of whom work hard, enrich our academic scene and contribute some £3 billion in fees.

Sadly there are also some tens of thousands who are economic migrants using some of the UK’s new, “pretendy”, universities and colleges as a back door into the country.

This week London Metropolitan had its licence to recruit foreign students revoked after it was found many had no visa, did not attend lectures and could not speak English. The usual suspects are outraged but genuine students are not at risk and the government has a clear duty to root out institutions which act as a front for illegal immigration.

(Dr) John Cameron

Howard Place

St Andrews, Fife