UK flags interviews for over 100,000 foreign students

OVER 100,000 non-Europeans planning to study in the UK face interviews for visas, after Home secretary Theresa May announced that the government would ramp up scrutiny of international students.

Ms May said the government would fully implement a pilot program that had seen 2300 prospective students interviewed over the past year.

Ms May said the UK’s interview pilot had showed that abuse was rife.

“Paper-based checks weren’t working, and interviews – conducted by entry clearance officers with the freedom to use their judgement – work,” she said in a speech delivered earlier this month.

“Through more and more interviewing, we are getting better at identifying and rejecting people we don’t want to come to Britain.”

Ms May said the interview program would immediately be “radically” extended.

“Starting with the highest-risk countries, and focusing on the route to Britain that is widely abused – student visas – we will increase the number of interviews to considerably more than 100,000.

“From there, we will extend the interviewing program further across all routes to Britain, wherever the evidence takes us.”