UK immigration staff to test foreign students' English skills

[joebloggs]

but only 5%

Students who have applied for visas to study in the UK and who have already passed approved language tests could be barred from taking up their places at colleges or universities if immigration officers judge that their English is not good enough.

...
The UK Border Agency (UKBA) said it expects to interview 14,000 students applying for Tier 4 student visas over the next 12 months: more than 5% of the 250,000 expected applicants.


read more here http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/...ent-interviews

[Dedworth]

Far too little and far too late

[grahamw48]

Will they be selecting some of the English-speaking UKBA staff to carry out this important task ?

[tone]

Why don't they just reduce the allocation of visas for this purpose?
Or is because the schools and colleges will be in uproar?

I'd agree too little too late!

[bigmarco]

Will they be selecting some of the English-speaking UKBA staff to carry out this important task ?

Beat me to it.

[Arthur Little]

Hmm ... ... since WHEN were Immigration Staff deemed appropriately-qualified to determine foreign students' standards of English -considering many of THEM seem to have difficulty in understanding the language themselves??? !

[hawk]

my wife speaks better english than 90% of ukba staff