Following the last discussion of PBS attendance monitoring requirements at PQ Team, the Academic Registry undertook further consultation with departments

Learning and Teaching Committee

Subject: Points Based System Immigration and Attendance Reporting

Origin: Senior Assistant Registrar, Student Office

Background

From March 2009, a new Points Based System for Immigration has been phased in. The UK Border Agency’s website states:

“The concept of sponsorship is at the heart of the points-based system. If you want to employ a migrant or enrol a migrant as a student, you must be their sponsor during their stay in the United Kingdom (unless they are coming here for six months or less in certain circumstances).“

Being a “sponsor” of international students carries with it a number of responsibilities. One of the most taxing areas of the sponsor responsibilities is the Reporting Duties.

Reporting Duties – General

There has been much debate about the extent to which universities can comply with these duties but failure to do so could result in the removal of the sponsor license. An extract from the UKBA Guidance to Sponsors under Tier 4 (students) follows:

“Reporting duties

All sponsors must report the following information or events to us, within any time limit specified. This includes reporting events during any period that a student is on a pre-sessional course at a partner institution which was named on the student’s visa letter or confirmation of acceptance for studies. Information about students’ non-attendance, non-compliance or disappearance will be used to take enforcement action against them:

· if a sponsored student does not enrol on his/her course within the enrolment period. The report must be provided within 10 working days and must include any reason given by the student for his/her non-enrolment (for example a missed flight);

· if a sponsored student misses 10 expected contacts, without the sponsor’s reasonably granted permission. In this case, the report must be provided within 10 working days of the 10th missed contact;

· if a sponsored student discontinues his/her studies (including a deferrals of study). Such a report must be given within 10 working days of the event in question, and should include the name and address of any new institution that the student has joined, if the sponsor knows it;

· if the sponsor stops sponsoring the student for any other reason (for example, if the student moves into a different immigration route with a different sponsor or one which does not require a sponsor, or the student’s period of leave to remain in the United Kingdom comes to an end) the report must be provided within 10 working days;

· if there are any significant changes in the sponsored student ‘s circumstances, for example if the location the student is studying at changes, or if the duration of a course of study shortens, the report must be provided within 10 working days;

· any information which suggests that a sponsored student is breaching the conditions of his or her leave, the report must be provided within 10 working days;”

The Academic Registry, working with IT Services, will implement procedures for reporting under most of the categories above without the necessity for Academic Departments to be any more involved than usual. For instance, students that do not register are already chased individually, and via departments. Once it is established that the student has not turned up, their records are cancelled and at this point, we would report them to UKBA. Similarly, where a student withdraws, we will build into the withdrawal processes, a mechanism for reporting that fact to the UKBA.

The remainder of this paper focuses on the second bullet point above and is concerned with the “attendance monitoring” of registered students. Rather than identifying 10 expected contacts, the University will seek to establish whether or not students are engaging with their programme in a timely manner and where they are not we will begin the termination of studies procedure after which they will be reported to UKBA. This approach is being recommended due to the inherent difficulty in defining “an expected contact”.

A significant amount of work is taking place to put in place appropriate procedures for meeting attendance monitoring requirements from October 2010. However, reporting duties become mandatory for all students who have been issued a Certificate of Acceptance of Studies (CAS) via the sponsorship management system which will go live on 22 February 2010.

On the recommendation of the Academic Registry, PQ Team has agreed that a phased approach be adopted as follows:

· Phase 1 – students issued a CAS between 22-Feb-10 and the start of academic year 2010/11

· Phase 2 – from start of academic year 2010/11

Reporting Duties – Phase 1

Between February 2010 and the new intake in October 2010, up to 40 taught students are expected to seek an extension to their visa and so will be issued a CAS via the sponsorship management system. The April and July 2010 intakes of research students will also be issued a CAS and mechanisms for monitoring their attendance are being developed via the Research Team.

Given the relatively small number of taught students involved, PQ Team has approved a proposal that attendance/engagement be monitored as follows:

The Academic Registry will produce lists (on a monthly basis) of all taught students with a CAS from the start of February 2010 and liaise with academic departments individually to assess whether or not the student is engaging with their programme. Departments may be asked to supply evidence (such as attendance at tutorials, marks for coursework) to back up claims that the student is attending as expected. This will be necessary in the event of any audit (internal or external) of these processes. For any student who does not appear to be engaging with their programme, the department will be asked to investigate further and if necessary, begin the termination of studies procedure after which students will be reported to the UKBA as having left their programme of study.

The University is currently participating in a voluntary scheme to report on the activity of 22 students. A similar process to that outlined above was adopted for the first return in December 2009. All of the departments involved were extremely co-operative and were able to respond within a few days of receiving a communication from the Academic Registry.

Reporting Duties – Phase 2

From the start of academic year 2010/11, all students under Phase 1 will be dealt with under Phase 2. A more detailed paper on Phase 2 will be presented to both PQ Team and Learning and Teaching Committee later in 2010 but a brief update on progress follows:

· A useful discussion has taken place between the Academic Registry and IT Services/Learn regarding the implementation of module checks via Learn in weeks 2 of each semester. There do not appear to be any technical constraints.

· All academic departments have submitted details of the attendance/engagement checks that will be undertaken in weeks 6-8 of each semester. Most departments appear to have existing procedures in place. The ADTs have been extremely helpful in assisting with the compilation of these lists and the Academic Registry would like to thank them for this.

· Some auditing of the departmental processes will need to be implemented and Miranda Routledge has held an initial meeting with Co-Tutor administrators to discuss ways in which this might be achieved. Where departments do not use Co-Tutor, other methods of audit will need to be identified.

· Each Academic Department will need to nominate an appropriately senior member of staff (role may be split in some departments) with responsibility for reporting students who do not appear to be engaging with their programme to the Academic Registry.

· A process for following up students who appear not to be engaging with their programme will need to be drafted to ensure that appropriate efforts to contact students and offer relevant support are made before beginning the termination of studies process.

This paper is for information only and no action is required from Learning and Teaching Committee at this stage. It is intended that a senior member of the Academic Registry will attend Directorate meetings to inform Heads of Departments of the issues and actions. The Departmental Administrators Liaison Group is also being regularly briefed on progress. A working group comprising members of the Academic Registry, Student Support Centre and IT Services is overseeing the implementation of various aspects of the new visa requirements.

Miranda Routledge

January 2010