Response to incorrect claim in Sky News article

Wed 02 Nov 2011

Cambridge Education Group statement:

Further to the erroneous publication of the company name on a Sky News website, CEG UCLan FoundationCampus strongly refutes the suggestion that it is ‘banned’ from sponsoring international students.

International students intending to progress from UCLan FoundationCampus to the University of Central Lancashire are all currently sponsored by the university itself, in partnership with Cambridge Education Group a leading provider of pre-university courses for UK, EU and non-EU students. Due to the uncertainty of UKBA policy changes, the company held a separate Sponsor licence for a short time, in case it should be required in future, and sponsored a very small cohort of legitimate students (less than 10) through this route, as approved by the UKBA, until it became clear that this licence would no longer be required. In making the decision not to retain this now dormant and unused licence, it was "revoked" before it was actively "surrendered".

The introduction of new regulation for Educational Oversight has obviated the need for this separate licence, and this style of university-private partnership is now recognised by the UKBA as an ‘embedded provider’, subject to the same inspection and accreditation as the Higher Education sector.

As a successful and responsible UK business, Cambridge Education Group is fully supportive of the government's aim to identify and remove the very small number of bogus colleges and to prevent them from obtaining or retaining sponsor licences. However, we are disappointed at the unnecessarily sweeping implications of the government changes and the hugely damaging impact on the UK as an Education destination for the thousands of high calibre bona fide students from overseas.

Our growth remains sector-leading but has been affected, as with all the other Highly Trusted participants in the sector, by irrational application of the new rules to the cost of the UK economy.