The answer is when it doesn't exist. Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants have entered the UK because of the Westminster government's failure to tackle the problem of bogus colleges a damning report has found.
Keith Vaz, chair of the House of Commons home affairs committee, criticised the government for being fully aware of this problem for over 10 years yet taking no action. People enter the UK with illegal papers claiming they are attending a college and there are no checks done at the point of entry. When asked if any of the illegal immigrants were connected with terrorism, Keith Vaz said his committee had found no evidence of that and most evidence pointed towards the majority becoming involved in illegal working.
Scotland's Colleges, the body which represents college principals in Scotland, has been trying for the past few years, to have the word 'college' restricted to registered institutions. There is facility within Scottish law to limit the use of the word in the way 'university' and 'polytechnic' is protected.
The report questions the rigour of college inspections by officials and criticised the UK Border Agency for giving advance notice of inspections to more that 80% of colleges. This is the part of the report I find most astonishing.
Surely there must be lists of registered colleges which have been thoroughly inspected and authenticated. Surely it's not beyond the wit of Whitehall mandarins and Home Office ministers to have all further education establishments on a database which could be accessed by officials at the points of entry. Type in the name of the college on the visa, click return and within seconds it will show whether the college is registered or not. I'm sure such databases already exist knowing this government's fondness for information gathering.
Also, all inspections must be undeclared. I've never understood the necessity for any organisation to be given advanced warning of an official visit - it defeats the objective and I'm always suspicious of the results.
Of course there are people who come to the UK to study at authentic places of learning and they should be encouraged, but we need to stop this abuse of our hospitality.
Source: The Herald
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5 comments:
...and somewhere that claims to teach English and has a TEFL tutor on its books?
We also need to open up our definitions of educational bodies, given the twin whammy of the internet and a depression. Not at all convinced that government inspectors are up to that as it stands. Look at the hatred Scottish Labour has given to any independence from schools, the ratings fiddles to suppress the University of Buckingham. Gove is not going to have an easy time re-defining schools in England.
Brian I'm no longer up to date with how successful government inspections are these days. They don't appear to be doing too well when they can't identify a room over a chip shop isn't a college and do something about it.
I do hope England is successful in redefining schools. You managed to keep some grammer schools. We here in Scotland are totally comprehensive with the exception of private schools.
Being all things to all girls/boys under the one roof has been a disaster.
Time we reassessed here too and created vocational schools also. But will it happen? Not in my lifetime if ever.
They all belong to an electoral college where they submit postal votes.
To teach English to a bunch of Iranians, you only need a room over a chipshop. Just what are you going to look for? If you go for heavyweight FSA tick box approach, you will kill anything that might actually educate. If you don't then the inspector has to have real credibility and authority. And we need to do these inspections because.... some other things don't work.
OK I'll run with your first sentence Brian. True it's not the environment that matters in the learning process, it's the quality of the information giver. Who judges them? Someone has to assess they're capable to deliver to a certain standard.
I'm not saying to stop inspections. My suggestion is that pre-advised inspections don't provide accurate information - in any field.
The likes of many military inspections actually are far more accurate - because there is no prior notification. Then of course they have a very regular inspection process so perhaps it's unfair making that comparison.
My suggestion is that checks at our borders should be made more accurately.
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