LONDON, Feb 23: The Home Office has increased the fee for applying for a visa to study in the UK in 2009-10 from £99 to £145. The new rule will come into effect from end of March 2009.

Visa fee for extensions via postal applications in the UK has also been increased from £295 to £357 and in-person applications from £500 to £565 – with additional costs for dependents.

The higher education sector in the UK is not happy with the latest round of increase in visa fees to study in Britain.

British universities face increasingly fierce competition from American, Australian and even European universities that are running more degree programmes in English.

Universities are halfway through the admissions cycle for 2009 and will have to implement policy aspects of the new system in March, while the IT system for overseas students has been delayed until the autumn for some students and for all in February next year.

Universities have already encountered difficulties with the IT system for recruiting university staff from overseas and vice-chancellors warn that if similar problems occur with the students’ system in July or August it would be disastrous for recruitment.

For instance, if a student expected to start a course in October but had problems getting a visa, he could opt to go to an Australian institution instead, where the academic year starts in February, rather than waiting another year to begin in the UK.The new system is expected to come into effect by the end of March, but vice-chancellors are concerned about the lack of details. Universities have received no final guidance about what is expected of them under the new arrangements and students still do not know exactly what the new processes will mean for them.

Overseas students already in the UK also face uncertainty and difficulties with extending their visas.

There have also been problems with the identity cards that overseas students are expected to hold and delays in them being issued.

More than 50,000 international students started undergraduate degrees at UK universities in 2008 with similar numbers on postgraduate courses, bringing with them important financial, academic and cultural benefits.

But vice-chancellors fear that an unexpected rise in fees to apply for a student visa will potentially put off overseas students in what is an increasingly competitive recruitment market.

The government is in danger of damaging British higher education by introducing new visa rules and raising charges without consulting the sector, vice-chancellors have warned.

They are also concerned about the timetable for implementing changes and that the IT system being set up by the government to register international students will be burdensome.