Fee move hits asylum seekers

The Government has been criticised for closing a loophole over course fees for overseas students without offering protection from the full cost for asylum seekers.

Tim Boswell, further and higher education minister, plans to bring regulations for part-time courses in line with full-time rules so that institutions charge higher fees for foreign students.

The change will mean that students on part-time courses will have to pay the full overseas student rate "where they do not meet the three-year residency requirement and are not excepted".

Those who would no longer qualify for home-student fee levels include British passport holders who have returned after living abroad, and the 50,000 asylum seekers in Britain. Those granted official refugee status will still count as home students.

"The amendment will not alter, in any way, institutions' present discretion to set their own fee levels or to waive or reduce fees for asylum seekers if they choose," said Mr Boswell in a House of Commons written reply.

The change is expected to come in in September and campaigners for refugee rights fear financially-pressed colleges will raise their rates. "Up until now asylum seekers have been able to get fees at the home-student rate for part-time courses," said Sam Clarke, general secretary of the World University Service.

"Now they are saying this group of people should be open to market forces at the whim of the college. With the pressure colleges are under, it is extremely concerning," he said.

"Some of the asylum seekers have been here for six years and have fled persecution and torture in their own countries. This move will block their main way to integration into British society."

Many follow part-time courses in English as a second language, with the fees waived or reduced. Home students often pay a quarter of the overseas rate.

The Further Education Funding Council has not issued guidance to colleges on whether asylum seekers count towards enrolment targets. But once the change comes in, they will be classed as overseas students and colleges will receive no funding council money for them.

At Lewisham College, about 300 students fall into the category which includes asylum seekers. "If they have not been able to go to a further education college like ours, they are at a pretty big disadvantage in the labour market," said registrar Julian Gravatt.