Asked by: Lord Johnson of Marylebone (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risk that higher education institutions succumb to pressure from student unions to undertake boycott divestment and sanction actions in relation to their investment and procurement decisions.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is aware that the BDS Movement has taken credit for divestments from Israeli companies carried out by universities following pressure from student campaigns. For example, the BDS Movement took credit for divestments from Israeli military suppliers by the University of Manchester in 2020 and procurement decisions by King’s College London and Southampton University. The Government is also aware of recent examples of student unions passing motions to lobby their universities to boycott and divest from Israeli companies, including for example Manchester University Student Union in 2022 and Warwick University Student Union in 2023. There are concerns that these campaigns can damage community cohesion and legitimise antisemitism. There are also examples overseas of the BDS Movement pressing universities to boycott or divest from Israeli companies for example in Norway or the United States of America. The Bill rightly applies to universities and higher education providers to prevent them succumbing to student union pressure in the future and to tackle this type of divisive activity on campuses.
Asked by: Lord Johnson of Marylebone (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are aware of any examples in the past five years of higher education institutions succumbing to pressure from student unions to undertake boycott divestment and sanction actions in relation to their investment and procurement decisions.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is aware that the BDS Movement has taken credit for divestments from Israeli companies carried out by universities following pressure from student campaigns. For example, the BDS Movement took credit for divestments from Israeli military suppliers by the University of Manchester in 2020 and procurement decisions by King’s College London and Southampton University. The Government is also aware of recent examples of student unions passing motions to lobby their universities to boycott and divest from Israeli companies, including for example Manchester University Student Union in 2022 and Warwick University Student Union in 2023. There are concerns that these campaigns can damage community cohesion and legitimise antisemitism. There are also examples overseas of the BDS Movement pressing universities to boycott or divest from Israeli companies for example in Norway or the United States of America. The Bill rightly applies to universities and higher education providers to prevent them succumbing to student union pressure in the future and to tackle this type of divisive activity on campuses.
Asked by: Lord Johnson of Marylebone (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the bidding process for the £7 million of funding to tackle antisemitism in schools and universities, announced in the Autumn Statement.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Following the Autumn Statement announcement, the government is preparing to issue an invitation for interested organisations to tender to tackle anti-semitism in schools, colleges, and universities. The department encourages all interested organisations to consider submitting a bid in response to the invitation to tender.
Asked by: Lord Johnson of Marylebone (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures are in place to ensure that applicants have English language skills at the level of proficiency required for courses when higher education providers have discretion to assess English language ability other than by reference to the result of a Secure English Language Test.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
An application for entry clearance to the UK or permission to stay as a student must show the student meets the English language requirement as specified in Appendix English Language of the Immigration Rules.
There is a degree of flexibility for sponsors that are Higher Education Providers (HEP) with a track record of compliance to self-assess the English proficiency of their students studying at degree level or above. The HEP choose their own method to assess the English ability of such students. Where they do so, they must state on the Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) the method which they have used, including, where relevant, the applicant’s English language test scores in all four components (reading, writing, speaking and listening).
Additional discretion is available to such sponsors via their ability to waive the English language requirement if the student is studying at degree level and the sponsor considers the student to be gifted. This must only be done if English language proficiency is not integral to the course of study and a pre-sessional course would be inappropriate. If a sponsor wants to waive the English language requirement for a gifted student, their academic registrar, or the institution’s equivalent, must approve this waiver. The CAS must state that the student is gifted, as well as including an explanation of why this is the case and the name and contact details of the academic registrar or equivalent.
Asked by: Lord Johnson of Marylebone (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discretion higher education institutions have to accept evidence of English language ability other than by reference to the result of an approved Secure English Language Test, for the purpose of Student Route visa applications.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
An application for entry clearance to the UK or permission to stay as a student must show the student meets the English language requirement as specified in Appendix English Language of the Immigration Rules.
There is a degree of flexibility for sponsors that are Higher Education Providers (HEP) with a track record of compliance to self-assess the English proficiency of their students studying at degree level or above. The HEP choose their own method to assess the English ability of such students. Where they do so, they must state on the Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) the method which they have used, including, where relevant, the applicant’s English language test scores in all four components (reading, writing, speaking and listening).
Additional discretion is available to such sponsors via their ability to waive the English language requirement if the student is studying at degree level and the sponsor considers the student to be gifted. This must only be done if English language proficiency is not integral to the course of study and a pre-sessional course would be inappropriate. If a sponsor wants to waive the English language requirement for a gifted student, their academic registrar, or the institution’s equivalent, must approve this waiver. The CAS must state that the student is gifted, as well as including an explanation of why this is the case and the name and contact details of the academic registrar or equivalent.
Asked by: Lord Johnson of Marylebone (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many of the applicants for the Student Route visa in the last three years have taken a Secure English Language Test to prove that their English language skills are at the level required for courses at National Qualifications Framework level 6 or above; and how many applicants did so with (1) IELTS SELT Consortium, (2) LanguageCert, (3) Pearson, (4) Trinity College London, and (5) PSI Services (UK) Ltd.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office does not routinely publish data on the number of applicants for the Student Route visa who have used a Secure English Language Test to evidence their English language skills.
Asked by: Lord Johnson of Marylebone (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many of the applicants from non-English speaking countries for the Student Route visa in the last three years have taken a Secure English Language Test to prove that their English language skills are at the level required for higher education courses considered below degree level; and how many applicants did so with (1) IELTS SELT Consortium, (2) LanguageCert, (3) Pearson, (4) Trinity College London, and (5) PSI Services (UK) Ltd.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office does not routinely publish data on the number of applicants for the Student Route visa who have used a Secure English Language Test to evidence their English language skills.
Asked by: Lord Johnson of Marylebone (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of international student visas are being processed within the service standard for decision-making.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Home Office Migration Statistics do not publish service standard information by nationality of applicant. Information on our immigration routes with service standards and whether they have been processed against these standards is available as part of our transparency data and can be found at: Visas and Citizenship data: Q2 2022. (Annex A)
Information on our current processing times can be found on Gov.uk.
Asked by: Lord Johnson of Marylebone (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how long is the current average international student visa processing time by nationality of applicant.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Home Office Migration Statistics do not publish service standard information by nationality of applicant. Information on our immigration routes with service standards and whether they have been processed against these standards is available as part of our transparency data and can be found at: Visas and Citizenship data: Q2 2022. (Annex A)
Information on our current processing times can be found on Gov.uk.
Asked by: Lord Johnson of Marylebone (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the speech by the Home Secretary on 8 October in which she said “too many students coming into this country who are propping up, frankly, substandard courses in inadequate institutions”, whether they will list (1) all substandard higher education courses and the criteria for their inclusion in this category, and (2) all inadequate higher education institutions and the criteria for their inclusion in this category; and how many international students in total attend substandard courses at inadequate institutions.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to tackling low-quality courses and ensuring that students and the taxpayer see returns on their investment. We are working with the Office for Students’ (OfS) to implement a visible and effective investigations regime that will enable the OfS to intervene where it has concerns about the quality of provision or student outcomes.
Where higher education providers are found to be in breach of requirements, the OfS may choose to impose sanctions such as financial penalties, suspension from the OfS register or, in the worst cases, deregistration
These “boots on the ground” inspections are part of significant regulatory reform being taken forward with the OfS, which aims to introduce a more rigorous and effective quality regime. This also includes setting stringent minimum thresholds on student outcomes for the first time.