“For most of my life I have been very aware of my status as an immigrant, though thankfully it has never been an oppressive awareness. Having been born in Germany, my family moved to Ireland when I was seven years old …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 16 March]
“Irish society needs all the youthful intelligence and imagination it can get. So it is not surprising that new figures showing Ireland’s decline in international rankings from fifth to 17th in reading and from 16th to 26th in maths have raised serious concerns …” (more)
[Seán Ó Riain, Irish Times, 13 December]
“Political manoeuvring over immigration is set to stunt academic progress worldwide, governments have been warned …” (more)
[Hannah Fearn, Times Higher Education, 25 November]
“… Apparently, so our ‘Human Resources Compliance Unit’ (I am not joking) assures us, reading a PhD thesis, writing a report and giving the candidate a viva of (say) two hours counts as ’employment’. So if you are appointed to do this, you need to prove your eligibility to work in this country, by showing your passport. If this is correct (and I mean IF), then this is just one little blow to the idea of the UK as a home of world class scholarship …” (more)
[Mary Beard, A don’s life, 14 October]
“The fact that people are working in Ireland on bogus student visas, as seen in reports today (Friday), has been facilitated by Minister Dermot Ahern’s failure to reform the student visa system according to Fine Gael Immigration & Integration Spokesman, Denis Naughten TD …” (more)
[Fine Gael, 12 February]
“The enforcement of complicated new visa laws is deterring overseas students who bring billions of pounds to the UK economy, business school leaders have warned. The government introduced a new points-based immigration system for non-European students on 31 March to prevent terrorists from entering the country, and to crack down on bogus colleges. Almost three quarters of the 340,000 overseas students studying at UK universities in 2007-08 were non-EU nationals. As the pound is weak thousands more are expected to apply to study here …” (more)
[Anthea Lipsett, Guardian, 18 May]
“Universities are urging the Government to ease immigration restrictions on academics to help head off a looming shortage as large numbers of baby-boomer professors and lecturers retire. Amid the fallout from the global financial crisis, the Government in March moved to cut the permanent skilled migration intake. But universities, which see migration as a way to overcome looming academic skills shortages, are warning that the move could leave the economy short when it recovers …” (more)
[Andrew Trounson, The Australian, 11 May]
“There will be no limit on the amount of one-year working visas available to Irish students and recent graduates wishing to work in the United States, the US embassy has said. It was initially reported that 20,000 visas were being made available to students who have enrolled in an educational course that could lead to a degree or diploma and to those who have graduated within the last year. However, a spokeswoman for the embassy said: ‘On the US side, we have not put any upper limit on the amount of people who can apply.’ The spokeswoman said no statistics were available regarding the numbers who had already applied for the working visa, called a J visa, adding ‘anecdotally, a lot of people have asked about it’ …” (more)
[Pamela Newenham, Irish Times, 20 April]
“More than 400 colleges and schools have been refused permission to take overseas students under immigration controls designed to weed out bogus institutions and students. The UK Border Agency has turned down around 460 of more than 2,100 organisations under new rules intended to ensure that students coming to the UK from beyond the European Economic Area (EEA) abide by the terms of their leave to be here, and that their host institutions monitor this properly. The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, said: ‘These new measures make sure people who come here to study and the people who teach them play by the rules …’” (more)
[Peter Kingston, Guardian, 31 March]
“More than half of the colleges that responded to a recent survey said they knowingly admit illegal immigrants to degree or diploma programs under certain circumstances, according to findings released on Monday by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. The report of findings was based on responses from 613 of the association’s 2,000 U.S.-based member institutions. Of those that responded either fully or partially to the survey, 54 percent said they did, and 46 percent said they did not, knowingly admit undocumented students. The percentages varied widely according to the type of college …” (more)
[Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Higher Education, 17 March]
Ninth Level Ireland 