XXX University and the Scottish Government need your help. The United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) is considering making changes to the existing student visa route which would mean students only being allowed to stay in the UK for a maximum continuous study period of five years. We believe this will unfairly discriminate international students who wish to study in Scotland as they may not be able to complete both an Undergraduate and Postgraduate course (or a Postgraduate and PhD course) during one period of leave to remain in the UK, at least not without having to leave the UK first which currently they do not need to do under the Tier 4 (General) student visa criteria. In order to put pressure on the UKBA therefore we need your help and would be grateful if each of you could take a few minutes of your time to complete a survey which you can do by clicking on the link below:-
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DWR7ZMG
The UKBA has stated that exceptions will be made for those advanced courses where, for example as a matter of professional qualification, the required total period of study is longer than five years. Courses such as Architecture, Engineering, Law, Medicine (including Dentistry and Pharmacy) and Veterinary Medicine and Sciences. We believe however that we should be able to offer a maximum total continuous period of leave of six years in Scotland which would be much fairer and easier for international students rather than an ad hoc system of a course by course basis.
The evidence collected in this survey will be used as part of a Scotland wise consultation response to the UKBA which will ask them to strongly consider the fact that degrees in Scotland are 4 years in length (whereas in England the length of an Undergraduate degree programme is normally 3 years) so they need to allow for a maximum total period of leave of six years in Scotland to accommodate for this difference in degree length. You assistance by completing the survey would help us achieve this aim so please do take a few minutes of your time to complete it.
