HAVING pledged to halve net migration to the UK by 2015, the government there is already turning towards heavy-handed action. Recently, the UK Border Agency revoked London Metropolitan University’s licence to teach foreign students from outside the EU, jeopardising the fate of some 2,700 students, an unspecified number of whom are from Pakistan. The students will be given up to 60 days to either enrol in another university or face deportment. The decision has been criticised as disproportionate and unfair — the Guardian dubbed it an “idiotic decision” — and from afar that does appear to be the case. The UKBA found that in a sample of 101 foreign, non-EU students at London Met, 26 had no valid visas for remaining in the UK, many did not have the requisite standard of English — the medium of instruction — and more than half did not attend any lectures. The unspoken presumption: London Met was being used illegally by some foreigners to live and work in the UK.

While that may certainly be the case for some of the foreign students enrolled at the university, to punish foreigners across the board when they will have paid dearly to live and study in the UK and have had a legitimate expectation to gain a world-class education, is wrong. Other options were available to the UK authorities: launch a wide-ranging investigation to determine the facts at London Met and other universities more fully or suspend the licence of London Met, as happened earlier in the case of other institutions, pending the problems being sorted out. Here in Pakistan, the UKBA’s move should be heeded as a warning signal. Private companies facilitating study abroad need to be better regulated to prevent genuine future students from meeting the same fate as their counterparts at London Metropolitan University.