VISA CHARGES – PARLIAMENTARY LOBBY

The Government (in particular the Home Office) is sticking the knife into International Students.

Non-EU students currently fork out over £10 billion in tuition fees and living costs each year and basically bankroll higher education in this country. Their tuition fees also continue to rise above the rate of inflation.

Now the Government has introduced yet another cash grab. They're decided to double the amount it costs from students to extend their leave to remain (their visa) in the UK.

From (fittingly) April 1st charges are set to rise from £155 to £250 for postal applications and from £250 to £500 for ‘premium’ in-person applications.

The Students' Union thinks this is outrageous and so myself and Kam went down to London yesterday with the rest of the Aldwych Group (the SUs of the top 19 Universities) to see what we could do.

Check out my gallery for photos: link

One of our primary aims was to get all our local MPs to sign an Early Day Motion against the charges. You can read it here: link

We succeeded in getting four of them on board. Only two remain:

Geoffrey Robinson - Labour MP for Coventry North West
House of Commons Phone number: 020 7219 4504
Constituency Phone number: 024 7625 7870

Bob Ainsworth - Labour MP for Coventry North East
ainsworthr@parliament.uk
House of Commons Phone number: 020 7219 4047
Constituency Phone number: 024 7622 6707

Help out our campaign – Contact these MPs and ask them to stand up for international students.

: 24 Feb 2005 15:39 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem