Poorer overseas students may be unable to study at Kingston under new immigration rules forcing them to prove they have thousands of pounds before entering the country.

International students applying to Kingston from March onwards need to score 40 immigration points. This is made up of 30 immigration points for having a sponsor letter from the University, and an extra ten points if they can prove that they have enough money upfront to cover their first year’s fees and £800 a month in living costs.

This amount of money has raised concerns amongst some students. Engineering student Victor Mwongera, 21, from Kenya said: “I know many international students are wealthy, but I’ve relied on scholarships and holiday jobs to fund my living costs. Basically, I wouldn’t be here if this system had been in place while I’d applied for university because I didn’t have that kind of money upfront.”

Kingston University will also be forced to report international students who miss a significant amount of lectures, under the points-based immigration system coming into force this year.

The new system has been brought in, partly to stop students applying for places at British universities just to obtain a visa, and failing to enrol or re-enrol for their course. At present universities are not required to inform the Home Office about these students, which has led to fears that there could be thousands of bogus students living illegally in this country.

Dr Heather Forland, Head of International Development at Kingston, where approximately 15 per cent of students are from outside the UK, said: “In line with current United Kingdom Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) guidelines we have not to date informed the Home Office about students who failed to enrol. This will change with the introduction of the points based system being brought in this year.”

According to information released after a Freedom of Information request, Kingston University has actually seen a decrease in the number of students failing to re-enrol without reason over the past three years. While 156 fell into this category in the academic year 2005/6, there were 42 recorded cases last year.

A University spokesperson denied that this was due to a decrease in admissions generally, and said: “We welcome the reduction in the number of students failing to re-enrol.”

For further information on studying in the UK, and the upcoming changes to the immigration system, see the UK Border Agency website.

Image: Rex Features.