The Home Office has since agreed to grant UCL the needed extra visa allocations.
Around 200 students from China alone have been impacted by this, with the university initially telling said students they may have to defer their studies to the next academic year, The Guardian reported last Wednesday.
This has happened due to an overrecruitment of international students and an underestimation of offer acceptance.
Universities are given a set number of visa allocations by the Home Office every year, based on factors such as the percentage of international students in comparison to home students. The issuing of Confirmation of Acceptance of Studies (CAS) numbers are the responsibility of the institutions themselves, not the Home Office.
Students who were already in the UK faced possible deportation due to this mismanagement, according to The Guardian.
While UCL has managed to work with the Home Office to secure more visa allocations, many students will have already been impacted both financially and psychologically.
Faced with the possibility of being effectively forced to defer to next year, the immediate implications for these students’ lives were significant.
These reports follow this year’s exam results yielding a record number of students getting into their first choice for university, bringing into question the university’s policies and practices surrounding recruitment and offers.
This is not the first issue that UCL has faced regarding incoming students: The Cheese Grater reported last week that nearly 1,300 students were left without accommodation after UCL could not deal with the demand for UCL-run student halls.
A UCL spokesperson said:
“We’re pleased to be able to assure our affected international students that they can now begin their studies at UCL.
“We wholeheartedly apologise to all those who have been impacted by the recent uncertainty and we are incredibly grateful for their patience. Our teams are now working quickly to contact students directly with updates and support.
“We also thank the Home Office for working swiftly to assist us in obtaining the additional Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) numbers we requested.”
