The number of foreign students coming to the UK will be slashed by 100,000 a year under plans to crack down on the regime to be unveiled today.
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, will announce a series of measures to tackle bogus colleges and tighten the rules including restrictions on those wanting to study at below degree level, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
A controversial scheme that allows tens of thousands of foreign graduates stay on after their degree to look for work will also be cut in half.
However, ministers have stopped short of abolishing the so-called Post Study Work Route altogether.
The sweeping changes come as figures suggest one in seven foreign students attending private colleges are bogus.
The overall number of students who breach their visa conditions has also tripled in a year with incidents now running at the equivalent of one a day.
Student visas have peaked at more than 300,000 in recent years and currently represent two thirds of all visas issued under the points-based system.
Ministers are determined to tackle abuse in the system and see the route as a key weapon for the Government in meeting its pledge of reducing overall net immigration to the “tens of thousands”.
The proposed shake-up is expected today to confirm only the most trusted education institutions, such as established universities, will be able to offer courses at below degree level to non-EU students.
Whitehall sources believe the move, along with other measures such as a tighter English language requirement, will cut the number of students arriving each year by 80,000.
There will also be a reduction of 20,000 among those immigrants already in the country who then swap to student visas in order the prolong their stay in the UK.
In a separate move, the Post Study Work Route will be tightened.
In 2009, some 38,000 foreign students and 8,000 dependants took advantage of the system, which effectively allows a graduate to stay on for up to two years to work.
In future only those who find a job that requires a graduate level qualification or above and are earning a minimum salary within six months will be allowed to stay.
It is hoped the move will cut numbers to 19,000.
An earlier consultation had suggested scrapping the route altogether but many education bodies fear it will damage the UK’s reputation to attract the best students.
The main aim of the review of the student regime is to tackle private colleges and language schools where the Home Office claims much of the abuse in the system is found.
Figures earlier this year revealed some 91,000 foreign students are attending private colleges which do not have the Home Office status of Highly Trusted Sponsor, awarded to colleges which can show there have not been instances of student visa abuse and have systems in place to check for abuse.
Further research to be published today indicates that some 13 per cent of students at such private colleges do not attend their courses, with non-attendance rates at some running as high as half.
The number of enforcement arrests for abuse of student visas is also currently running at 30 a month – three times the rate of this time last year.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “Immigration by students has more than doubled in the last ten years and is now far larger than through the work or family routes.
“This Government recognises the important contribution that international students make to the UK’s economy, and to making our education system one of the best in the world.
“But it has become very apparent that the old student visa regime failed to control immigration and failed to protect legitimate students from poor quality colleges.
“Too much trust has been placed on largely unregulated colleges and too many people used to come as students but were primarily working, not studying.
“We want to refocus the system as a temporary route, available to only the brightest and best.”
