Today the government is set to roll out the next stage of its ID card proposals. From now on, all international students entering education or renewing their visa will be charged £30 for a compulsory ID card.
Singled out
NUS believes singling out international students from the rest of the student population could lead to increased discrimination and alienation for students already facing the daunting challenge of leaving home and studying in a foreign country.
“The attractiveness of UK higher education to students from other countries should not be put at risk by these onerous and costly procedures that implicitly treat them with suspicion," says NUS President Wes Streeting. "By singling out international students from their peers with biometric identity cards, a group already at risk of stigmatisation will be indelibly marked as different.”
Deterrent
The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) often states its intention to increase the number of international students within the UK. Yet the enforced adoption of these cards could deter the very students our universities are seeking to attract, stripping universities of vital funding, and our campus communities of the cultural diversity we currently enjoy. Last week fifteen universities spoke out about the impracticalities of this scheme.
NUS is concerned that the Home Office and UK universities are simply not prepared to process the significant number of applications, potentially meaning international students could be denied access to a university not because of academic ability but as a result of administrative delays.
British citizens
The government also plans to roll out voluntary ID cards for young people and students in 2010 ahead of proposals to make them compulsory for all British citizens.