London Metropolitan University has instructed its lawyers to start urgent legal action to challenge the revocation of its status for sponsoring international students, including hundreds from the Gulf region.
It said in a statement that Penningtons Solicitors was seeking to challenge the move by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) so that its students can return to study “as a matter of urgency”.
The University said it has conducted a thorough review of UKBA’s “evidence” and “in the strongest possible terms challenges the outcome”.
In a statement, it said there is no evidence of systemic failings, as claimed by the UKBA.
“The evidence that we provided to UKBA clearly shows on file-after-file that we were taking every reasonable measure we could to be compliant. The UKBA’s claim that London Met ‘did not address serious and systemic failings that we identified 6 months ago’ is simply not true.”
More than 2,000 international students, including hundreds from the Gulf, are facing the threat of deportation after the University lost its Highly Trust status.
The University added in the statement that it has been conducting checks on its international students, specifically in relation to English language and educational ability.
Staff hav been “diligently performing stringent checks to try and ensure that all individuals who are studying at the University are legally entitled to do so”, the statement said.
London Met added that it is concerned that the current UK immigration policy is “creating confusion across universities in the country and irrevocable damage to the UK’s globally-recognised education sector”.
The revocation, announced on August 29, affects up to 2,600 continuing international students who will have until December 1 to find an alternative sponsor or face deportation.
The revocation could result in as much as a £30m annual loss to the institution.
Professor Malcolm Gillies, vice-chancellor of London Metropolitan University said: “London Met will fight this revocation, which is based on a highly flawed report by the UKBA.
“The University will continue to give top priority to the interests of our international students who have been so distressed by this precipitate action.”
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