The decision by Britain’s Border Authority to strip London Metropolitan University of its right to grant student visas with retrospective effect appears unfair. This will have an impact on the future of more than 2,000 students from outside the European Union, including several hundred from India, who now face deportation unless they can miraculously find admission to other universities in the next 60 days.
This may have been possible if they had been warned even a couple of months ago. As matters stand, most universities have come to the end of their admissions cycles, and classes are mostly full.
The UKBA alleges that a quarter of the university’s students from outside the European Union had invalid visas, that more than half had not been attending college regularly, and 20 out of 50 students surveyed had limited knowledge of English.
It may be true that there are indeed some bad apples who use student visas as a means to enter the UK without actually intending to study there. That does not explain, however, why the genuine students, whose parents have paid lakhs of rupees for their education, must also suffer in the bargain. To grind the innocent along with the guilty is hardly justice. For that matter, guilt has not been proved in even a single case — what we have so far is suspicion. If seemingly enlightened governments start punishing people for suspected sins they don’t come across as very different from those in less enlightened parts of the world.