Please note the judgement below – it is self-explanatory and very good news for students wishing to study in the UK:
‘I am very pleased to be able to tell you that earlier today English UK won the High Court Judicial Review case on English language courses under the Points Based System.
Tony Millns, Chief Executive of English UK, which represents 440 fully-accredited English language centres, said: “This judgement upholds our basic case that the Home Secretary was wrong to introduce a substantive change in the entry criteria for GSV students without laying that change before Parliament.
“We have asked the court to rule that the English language requirement must now revert to what it was before 3 March, in other words students must be at level A1 to take an English language course at A2. This will give our 440 member centres some immediate help since many of them faced losing a damaging number of students this summer and autumn.”
He added: “We brought this case as a last resort, and will now seek to discuss with UKBA ways in which we can help formulate a more sensible policy which our members can support and which will contribute to immigration control. Genuine colleges have no desire to enrol people who are not genuine students. We are pleased that Mr Justice Foskett saw the merits of our case and we believe that his decision is good for the UK economy, to which the English language sector contributes about £1.5 billion in foreign earnings each year.’
I will update you as soon as I have more news. Meanwhile, watch this space!
Do you know someone who maybe interested in studying an English language course in the UK? Why not forward this page to a friend?
The new points based system still requires student visa applicants to have a minimum of 40 points but these are now made up as follows: 30 points for your letter of enrolment from a UK Borders Agency sponsor school (all the schools used by English Study Breaks are British Council accredited and approved by UKBA); and 10 points for demonstrating that you have sufficient funds for your stay – this is set out on the UKBA website (http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk).