Part of Business, Innovation and Skills – in the House of Commons am 10:30 am ar 16 Gorffennaf 2009.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Gosh, we have reached question 10 and it is only just 11 o'clock!
Given the additional administrative and legal requirements that the Government have placed on all universities for the handling of visa requirements for overseas students, does the Minister recognise that there is additional complexity and inconsistency in the way in which these applications are handled in the various home countries? There is also the length of the appeal process to consider and the fact that if a foreign student studying at a university in Britain has to apply for an extension, they now have to go via the UK Border Agency at an average individual cost of £357. Does not all that cut against the university policy encouraged by the Government to win more overseas students to the UK generally?