UK universities enrolling International students with poor English, BBC finds

A BBC investigation into the English language proficiency of international students has intensified the ongoing debate about academic standards and immigration rules. It comes at a time when the government has signalled its intention to intensify oversight of adherence to visa regulations, including in the university sector. We’ll speak to an immigration lawyer about the government’s policy and how universities should respond.

In May 2024, the government introduced mandatory English language tests for migrants utilizing the Graduate Route to remain in the UK after completing their university studies. The tests are designed to ensure that only individuals with adequate English skills can extend their stay, addressing concerns about system abuses by those with insufficient language proficiency. Institutions with high dropout rates or those failing to meet compliance standards risk losing their licenses to recruit overseas students. 

In December 2024, the BBC conducted an investigation into the English language proficiency of international students in UK universities. 

Jo Grady, General Secretary of the UCU, which represents 120,000 lecturers and university staff, says it is an open secret that students who lack English skills find ways to come to the UK to study. She told the BBC ‘When we speak to members we hear about the tricks that are pulled in order to have people pass the relevant language test and get on to courses.’ 

However, Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, rejected the suggestion some overseas students are being allowed on courses with poor English language skills as a way of boosting income. She said universities carry out strict checks on those they enrol - including minimum language levels, as set by the UK government.

The BBC’s investigation has out the spotlight back onto the issue of compliance with immigration and educational standards in UK universities. It is already an area of concern for the Home Office which has increased its level of scrutiny with more frequent audits of institutions admitting international students. They have also imposed stricter enforcement measures, such as placing universities on licence action plans and imposing penalties for non-compliance with visa sponsorship requirements,. UKVI says these steps are necessary ‘to ensure that universities meet the standards expected for admitting students under the Tier 4 visa system and maintain the integrity of the UK’s immigration framework.’

So let’s get a view on this. Earlier I caught up with immigration lawyer Shara Pledger who joined me by video-link from Manchester to discuss it: 

Shara Pledger: “International students have been coming under increasing levels of scrutiny, really, throughout the course of 2024. A lot of that has to do with the fact that student recruitment can be quite a driving factor when it comes to overall net migration figures and obviously that's something that has been in the news for many, many, years and has returned to the news just very recently, given the adjusted figures that have been released about previous immigration levels. So when we are talking about international students it's really common to find issues that are kind of coming up that people want to discuss about whether or not we're recruiting the right students and at the right level. This issue about international student English level is all about whether or not we are recruiting the right people to come to the UK and are offering the right opportunities for students because it's obviously really important not just that universities are able to be able to market themselves and attract those international students - because they really can be enriching for absolutely everybody, for themselves, and also for the UK students who are at institutions - but it is also an issue for UK students. If you are on a course with a high volume of international students who don't have a great grasp of English it will naturally have quite a profound impact on your own learning experience. So you can see why it's a legitimate concern as to whether or not universities are recruiting the right students in the right kind of way. Now, universities do have some flexibility in terms of how they make assessments of individual students’ English language level. That does mean, of course, that a lot of it is left down to individual institutions to be conducting very thorough assessments to make sure that they are recruiting the right students at the right time. So this is something that has potential to perhaps grow into a bit more of a compliance issue if an institution is being assessed by the Home Office and the Home Office is not satisfied that the steps that that institution is taking to assess English language requirements are sufficiently thorough. There is a question as to what that might mean for that university's ability to continue to recruit international students in future. So while at the moment it’s quite a small, contained, story it does have the potential to grow to something much larger.”

Joe Glavina: “I see that UKVI has placed three universities on licence action plans, Shara.” 

Shara Pledger: “Yes, and I have to say, we obviously don't know the exact reasons as to why some universities are facing action plans because that kind of information is, quite rightly, not public and it could be done to any number of factors but when an institution is put on an action plan it basically means that the Home Office have identified some compliance concerns that can be addressed quite comfortably. So an action plan will be set out for an institution, and this is the same whether it's in relation to international student recruitment or worker recruitment. An action plan will set out: this is what's gone wrong, these are the steps that you can do to address what's gone wrong, and we'll come back and make an assessment as to whether you've been able to successfully make those changes. So action plans, I feel, can be seen in quite a positive way because, clearly, they're not suspension of a licence, they're not, crucially, revocation of a licence and it is a good opportunity for an institution to be able to make those changes which really are, obviously, or the benefit of everybody, for the Home Office in terms of their compliance, but also for the institution in making sure they have the right people in the right places.”

Joe Glavina: “What do you advise university clients to do in light of this story, Shara?”

Shara Pledger: “I think a lot of universities at the moment may have some concerns in relation to what we call their basic compliance assessment. So this is an annual assessment of key indicators in terms of how their sponsor licence is working, whether the people that are applying for student visas are getting those visas, whether those individuals are enrolling on their courses as planned, and whether they are successfully completing their courses. Now, unhappily, those three factors can be quite heavily influenced by external factors. If you suddenly have a very high spike in the number of refusals from a particular area of the world, for example, it can obviously really impact things like your visa approval rate. If you have a high number of students from a particular jurisdiction which suddenly faces economic problems you might suddenly find that a lot of your students can't afford their fees and that might affect your enrolment and your completion rates. So it's really important to just keep on top of these things and to know what's coming. If you can identify that there might be something which on the surface looks quite concerning but you know that there is context there that could be quite useful for the Home Office to have, prepare. Make sure that the Home Office are in possession of all of the correct amount of information and that they know all of the factors that are impacting your particular student and enrolment processes because what you don't want, necessarily, is for a snap decision to be made on something that looks quite bad on paper but contextually is actually very understandable.”

The BBC’s investigation into the English language proficiency of international students in UK universities was published on December 3, 2024. The report is called ‘Universities enrolling foreign students with poor English, BBC finds’ and it’s available from the BBC News website. We’ve included a link to it in the transcript of this programme for you.

- Link to BBC report: ‘Universities enrolling foreign students with poor English, BBC finds.’