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Changes to student visa system could damage Bournemouth's language schools (From Bournemouth Echo)
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Changes to student visa system could damage Bournemouth's language schools
10:23am Tuesday 9th February 2010
LANGUAGE school bosses in Bournemouth and Poole fear an announcement by the Home Secretary will damage the town's £200 million a year English language industry.
In a television interview on Sunday Alan Johnson MP expressed his willingness to press ahead with changes to visa requirements for international students - despite a campaign by local academies.
He confirmed their fears that students applying to study courses below degree level will now need to speak English at GCSE level before they arrive.
"It is rather like telling someone who wants driving lessons to come back and take a course once they've passed their driving test," said Clive Barrow, chairman of the local accredited schools association RALSA.
The requirement will be enforced for students applying for courses below degree level, and for degree level courses which have a work placement.
Shane Wilkinson, the owner of the Bournemouth International Business School, said a proposal to reduce student working hours from 20 to 10 hours a week would not protect British workers, who were unlikely to be attracted by casual work.
But Mr Johnson remained defiant in the face of the outcry from school bosses, and insisted the door would not be closed to bona fide students.
"We created our points based system so that we could respond quickly to changing circumstances when necessary to raise the bar students have to meet to come to the UK.
"We remain open to those foreign students who want to come to the UK for legitimate study - they remain welcome.
"But those who are not seriously interested in coming here to study but come primarily to work - they should be in no doubt that we will come down hard on those that flout the rules.
"I make no apologies for strengthening an already robust system," he said.
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Your Say YourEcho
Jonkers, Bournemouth says...
1:27pm Tue 9 Feb 10
psal, christchurch says...
3:45pm Tue 9 Feb 10
fedupwithjobsworths, Moordown says...
6:25pm Tue 9 Feb 10
yuw1, bournemouth says...
6:28pm Tue 9 Feb 10
While there are students who do not come to 'study', there is a large number who do. Asking students to be proficient up to GCSE standard English also makes no sense, what is that? Shakespeare? being able to read 'From Mice to Men' - foreign language ability is not measured like this.
It will be a great business for English schools abroad though and perhaps for other English speaking countries. Surely this is just an excuse to show the public that the government wish to clamp down on immigration, they should concentrate on the bogus language schools and real illegal immigrants not look for a scapegoat.
Fed up still, bournemouth says...
8:17pm Tue 9 Feb 10
Bad Rabbit, Kuala Lumpur - Ex Winton says...
2:48am Wed 10 Feb 10
(honourable exception to yuw1)
Well congratulations, you're cheering on a loss of income to the town you morons.
Now all you've got to do is kill of the tourist trade and the twon will sink bank into the obscurity it had only 200 years ago!
Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face!
Yes, you are all entitled to your opinions, the rest of us however are entitled to laugh at them.
MJD, HAMWORTHY says...
3:55am Wed 10 Feb 10
tangogran, Bournemouth says...
7:42am Wed 10 Feb 10
ry8000, Bournemouth says...
9:12am Wed 10 Feb 10
MJD wrote:Learning to count to 10 in another language doesn't really count. I would bet that you can't speak German or French as well as they could speak English. Additionally, it's a shame you weren't tought English at school... re-read your statement, and you might see what I mean.
Should have done this many years ago. I learnt French and German at school. Why don't they learn in there own countries as we do. Two good points. Just think of all the part time jobs or should i say full time come available and all that extra accommodation coming free that is needed by are own.
Personally I think it's a big shame that we make an unwarranted knee jerk reaction to a problem. It's a lazy way of dealing with things.
yuw1, bournemouth says...
10:35pm Wed 10 Feb 10
So 'fed up still' would like to say that the person he's/she's talking about is here illegally, not going to school and working 40 hrs a week-"About time it was sorted" you say. Is she going home now then?
Re MJD-I agree with ry8000. Unfortunately Before criticising learners shouldn't you be able to spell!! Further, if you check out the rental pages and websites, you'll find plenty of empty accommodation not taken by 'our own'. Try living in my road during the summer with all the drunk university students- the foreign students were so much quieter!
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Bournehammer68, Bournemouth says...
11:52am Tue 9 Feb 10
Times are finally a changing, for far to long any tom dick and abduhl have been allowed to come to this country on bogus student visas.
national security must come before the business needs of a language school.