The UK Home Office’s (HO) decision to force thousands of international students to leave after they were accused of cheating in the English language before properly verifying evidence led to injustice and hardship for many people, the UK House of Commons (HC) Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report has claimed.
The HO is the department responsible for the points-based visa system, which allows students from outside the European Economic Area to study in the UK. Most of these students must support their visa application by a Secure English Language Test (SELT). The Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) in the UK was administered by the American provider ETS, which was an approved SELT between 2011 and 2014. In 2014, however, a BBC Panorama investigation exposed wide-scale organised cheating at the two TOEIC test centres, leading the department to investigate the issue in February 2014.
According the PAC findings, the department then acted against over 50,000 student – a majority of them from South Asia, including Pakistan – by revoking their visas. Subsequently, at least 11,356 of these people have since voluntarily left the UK, while the department has removed or refused re-entry to the UK to at least 2,859 individuals. Hundreds, possibly thousands, continue to protest their innocence.
Since April 2014, according to the date of PAC at least 12,500 appeals involving individuals matched to invalid or questionable TOEIC certificates have been heard by the courts. Around 40% people making appeals to the immigration tribunal have won their appeal. However, the department continues to rely upon the evidence provided by the ETS. To date, the HO has not taken any further steps to support individuals who are affected by its actions, the report pointed.
The MP’s body said that the HO “rushed to penalise” students without establishing whether ETS was involved in fraud or if it had reliable evidence of people cheating. It is entirely unacceptable that, despite now recognising that hundreds of people still maintain their innocence, the Home Office has not acted to put right the wrongs caused by its actions, members of the PCA said.
The committee recommended that the HO should, within three months of the report, create and promote a fair and trustworthy means of helping all individuals who may have been wrongly accused to come forward and clear their names, including ensuring that all evidence from ETS is made available to them.
Meg Hillier, the committee’s chair, said the Home Office’s flawed reaction to a systemic failure by a private company has led to real injustice.
A Home Office spokesperson said, “The 2014 investigation into the abuse of English language testing revealed systemic cheating which was indicative of significant organised fraud. The scale of the abuse is shown by the fact that 25 people who facilitated this fraud have received criminal convictions totalling over 70 years. The courts have consistently found that the evidence the Home Office had at the time was sufficient to take action.”
