International students are being lured by agencies to apply to regional universities in Britain claiming that they are in London.
The scams have been unveiled in a recent report that points out that some agencies are charging more than £500 in order to help people to apply in universities, in spite of the fact that they are free for applicants, VisaGuide.World reports.
At present, people are eligible to move to Britain on a graduate visa, which allows them to stay in this territory for at least two years after completing the course and work successfully.
The Migration Advisory Committee commissioned a research agency to conduct 40 interviews with recent graduates from UK universities who were currently on the graduate visa.
The research aims to bring a clearer picture of how the route worked in practice and how it was viewed.
In addition, it also emphasizes how third-party agencies played an important role in the decision of some graduates who choose to study in Britain, according to a report from the Standard UK.
These agencies, often free for students and sometimes funded by universities, provided assistance with applications, course selection, and accommodation.
However, it notes that their influence sometimes leads to misaligned expectations related to the content of people’s courses, university rankings or the location of the university.
According to local media reports in some cases, persons felt agencies had mis-sold the course location or university.
Several Cases Reveal How Students Were Being Lured by Agencies
The report highlights a case of a 28-year-old Pakistani girl pursuing film studies. The girl was led to believe she was going to a university in a “big, bustling city, and some of the promotional materials included photos of London”.
In another case of a girl from Nigeria, it was revealed that agents mentioned to her the benefits of the graduate visa before applying for university, mentioning also some benefits of studying in the UK.
According to a report, the agencies were often free for people to use, in some cases funded or subsidized by the UK universities.
However, some people reported being paid by agencies in order to support them. According to some people, the agencies charged them about £500, or maybe £400. A person revealed that the agency did the application for her under the amount of money paid to the agency and she didn’t have to do anything.
“he only thing I did was the IELTS (International English Language Testing System), and I gave them my documents. I think I had to make a personal statement, telling them [the university] why I wanted to do the course, but I think the agency wrote it for me.
However, the research noted that participants in the study who used agencies ended up doing less competitive courses or attending less highly ranked universities.