British Official Faults Visa Delays for Deterring Foreign Graduate Students

Britain’s new points-based visa system was intended to help ease processing procedures for legitimate entrants, but a leading official at the ministry that oversees universities warns in a new report that the system is preventing highly qualified foreign graduate students from studying in the country, the Financial Times reported. Adrian Smith, director of research at Britain’s Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills, says in the report that higher-education institutions are reporting processing delays that have “prevented legitimate, high-caliber postgraduates from taking up places.” A fourth of all students at British higher-education institutions are graduate students, and for most universities, “postgraduate provision is a major part of their business,” the report says. Foreign students from outside the European Union tend to pay higher tuition than domestic students do.