Immigration : the points based system - student route, seventh report of session 2012-13, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence

There is tension between the twin goals of ensuring a flow of high quality students into the UK and ensuring and maintaining public confidence in the immigration system.

The Home Office, through the UK Border Agency, introduced Tier 4 of the Points Based System for student immigration in March 2009 to control the entry of students from outside the European Economic Area.

The Agency, however, implemented the new system before proper controls were in place and removed the controls it relied on under the old system.

The controls gap enabled a surge in student visas and, in 2009 an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 additional migrants came to the UK to work rather than study.

The Agency has had to spend the subsequent three years amending rules and procedures in an effort to reduce abuse.

This constant change has made it very difficult and costly for students and education institutions to keep up to date with the increasingly complex set of rules and guidance that has emerged.

The Government expected that clamping down on abuse of student visas would play a part in reducing net migration. However the measurement of net migration is still based on inaccurate International Passenger Survey data.

The e-Borders system for counting all migrants in and out of the UK will not be in place fully until 2015 at the earliest.

It would also be more informative to also report net migration statistics excluding students, as a number of other comparable countries do