uk

More than 450 colleges in the UK have been banned from teaching foreign students, as part of new visa restrictions introduced by the government. As part of a plan to reduce immigration to the UK, there has been a crack down on bogus colleges set up simply as a way to for fake students to get visas.

For years there have been hundreds of colleges offering internationals an easy way into the UK through fake courses that allowed them to claim student visas. However, earlier this year the government announced that this abuse of the immigration system was to be put under scrutiny.

Licences Revoked

Of the 450 colleges affected so far, almost 400 of them failed to register with the new inspection system and so lost the privilege of recruiting international students. The rest either had their licences revoked or suspended due to a variety of misdemeanours. Common problems were colleges that were unable to show records of student attendance, or that they had checked the students' qualifications. However, one college could not even provide a list of enrolled students or a timetable of classes.

Once again I find myself looking back and deriving lessons from my past year in London. This time, I have examined my academic experience and asked myself what worked and what didn't. Here is a summary of my findings:

After a wet, windy and cloudy summer, it seems summer has finally reached the UK- just a few months late. This week Britain is going through an unseasonal heat wave, with temperatures at 27^oC in London today. What's more, by Friday it is expected to reach 28^oC, which is hotter than Hawaii at this time of year.

A source from the Met Office (the British weather forecasters) revealed: "It's going to be a warm week, and in some cases the night-time temperatures could get up to about the same as you would expect during the day for this time of year". Usually, the average temperature in September in Britain is just 15^oC.

The even better news is that the Indian Summer is expected to last in to October, with warm, dry weather predicted. The British public are always happy to take advantage of some nice weather and by the weekend, Brits will be out in their millions enjoying one last BBQ or day at the beach.

However, if there is one thing that Brits enjoy more than lounging in the hot weather, it is talking about it. There are hundreds of stories across the internet, conversations can be heard on every street and there are already Facebook groups set up, all about this year's Indian Summer!

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending a conference on the future of education in Britain. It was an independently organised event arranged by TEDx London- a branch of the TED Talks network.

TED Talks is a platform that invites speakers from various fields and professions to share innovative ideas, and since the talks started being streamed online their popularity has been phenomenal.

The Current State of Education

The event was inspired by a famous TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson in 2010, where he called for an ‘education revolution' and the need for educational institutions to fundamentally change the way they operate.

At the talk, participants were presented with three areas of discussion, and firstly, responding to Ken's analysis of education, speakers looked at education's current state.

Various speakers shared their views on how education fails to engage young people due to the curriculum's lack of relevance and the rigidness of educational models that are currently being used.

An eloquent address by 14 year-old student Georgia Allis Mills described how the education system needs to adapt to the mind state of young people today, whilst artist Goldie shared his thoughts on how education fails to prepare students for the ‘real world'.

A number of English universities are thinking about reducing their 2012 tuition fees following changes to Higher Education policy. The Office of Fair Access (Offa) revealed that around 12 institutions are looking to cut their fees from the maximum £9,000 to less than £7,500 per year.

The majority of English universities revealed earlier in the year that they will begin to charge the maximum £9,000 per year for courses starting in 2012 onwards. However, in an attempt to reduce this number, the government announced plans which benefit universities charging yearly fees of less than £7,500.

In its White Paper released in June, the government detailed how 20,000 students will be held back from across English universities. Any institution that charges average yearly fees of less than £7,500 will then be able to bid for these places.

Cutting EU Student Fees

Since this announcement, Offa, which makes sure universities provide enough opportunities for poorer students, have revealed that at least a dozen institutions have asked for advice about reducing their fees. The identity of these universities is unknown, but a spokesman from Offa said that the majority were currently planning to charge only just over the watershed £7,500 amount.