10:23am Tuesday 9th February 2010
By Timothy John
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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