UK envoy cautions on sham colleges

The British High Commissioner to Rwanda, Nicholas Canon, has called upon Rwandans to be careful of some UK-based colleges, saying that some of them were a sham. This comes after Britain suspended the licenses of more than 150 colleges. The British government says the decision was taken after establishing that these institutions existed to facilitate immigrants to acquire student visas to go to work in the country. Speaking to The New Times yesterday in a phone interview, Canon said that people ought to be careful and always crosscheck to be sure they are dealing with genuine colleges. “The list of the closed colleges is available, so people should be able to crosscheck and see if the colleges they are applying to are genuine to avoid inconveniences,” he said. Asked if there are any Rwandan students who could have been affected following the crackdown on the these colleges a few months back, the High Commissioner said that he had not received any information regarding any Rwandan student being affected. “It is difficult to establish if any Rwandans have been affected by this, but at least I haven’t received any complaint concerning the issue,” said Canon. The decision according to NDTV, an Indian news website, has affected a big number of Asian students who had gone to the UK with hopes of acquiring better education from the colleges. Britain also recently tightened the student visa applications by introducing a points-based system. Officials maintain that the new regulations will lead to a sharp reduction in the 240,000 student visas currently issued by the UK annually. Ends

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UK envoy cautions on sham colleges