7 August 2015
Dear Maliwan Wongthanasuporn,
UKVI Tier 4 – an important update
I am writing to let you know that on 29 July 2015, regrettably, Ealing, Hammersmith & West London College (the College) was informed by UK Visa and Immigration (UKVI) of its decision to remove us from its register of Tier 4 visa sponsors as their records indicated that our visa refusal rate has exceeded the threshold of 10%.
This means that our Tier 4 licence is under review and we cannot accept any new international students. This decision has no immediate impact on you, our current students, as your leave to remain is unaffected. If you are currently awaiting the decision for your visa application, the decision will be put on hold but you are permitted to continue with your course. So, you should continue attending your lessons and/or work placement as per your timetable.
The College has now entered a review period to compare our data against that of UKVI and we will submit our representation on 25 September. Until the review period is concluded it is hard for us to be precise on exactly what will happen next but we have scheduled a number of drop in sessions for you to come in to meet the International team, these are listed below.
Day
Times
Venue
Wednesday 12 August
10.30am
12.30pm
International Student Centre
Thursday 13 August
10.30am
12.30pm
3pm
Monday 17 August
4pm
In addition, the International Student Centre reception is now operating longer hours 09:00-17:00 so you can drop in at any time and seek further advice. Alternatively, you can email intoff@gspace.wlc.ac.uk or phone 0044 (0) 20 7565 1246 if you are unable to visit in person.
I would like to reassure you that during this review period we will be working hard to reach an agreement to safeguard your future and qualifications. The College is a publically funded institution and across our four locations we work with over 20,000 students every year and we are committed to see this success continue so you have our reassurance that we take this situation very seriously. Importantly, you should understand that your course fees are safe.
We will keep you updated on a regular basis whilst the review is on-going and once a final decision has been reached we will inform you straight away.
Yours sincerely
Garry Phillips
CEO/Principal
Ealing, Hammersmith & West London College