Renewing Your Tier 4 Sponsor Licence

Just like Olympic Games the four-year cycle for Tier 2 and Tier 4 licence is now again upon us. In light of this, I felt it was a good time to begin a series of in-depth articles focusing on the potential pitfalls that universities can encounter when approaching renewing their Tier 4 sponsor licence.

As is true with Tier 2, post licence audits can also lead to a post licence audit. Unlike a tier 2 audit though these are often far more forensic and lengthy normally lasting between 2 and 3 days. Needless to say the consequences for failing such an audit can be devastating.

What to expect when sponsors breach of their Tier 4 sponsorship duties

In the event of the UKVI finding a sponsor to be in breach of their Tier 4 sponsorship duties the action they take will depend on the severity of the non-compliance. This can range from the UKVI obligating the institution to comply with an action plan, a reduction in the number of certificates for acceptance of studies (CAS) that they can issue (including to zero, if the UKVI sees appropriate) as well as a suspension or even a revocation of the universities sponsor licence. If a university were to have its sponsor licence revoked it would lose its ability to recruit any new international students and the visas of its current international students would be curtailed to a period of 60 days.

As many professionals working in the Tier 4 compliance sphere will know, the Home office established the Higher Educational Assurance Team (HEAT) in 2013 in order to assist them with conducting audits within the higher education sector. Overall the HEAT, have also greatly improved the Home Office’s understanding of immigration compliance within higher education. This has lead to a positive but rigorous and informed approach to audits. The HEAT team auditors are very aware of the issues facing the Higher Education Sector and would apply this knowledge to the process Universities used to deliver against their Tier 4 compliance obligations.

It has recently become known that the HEAT team is no longer going to operate in its current form and as such going forward Universities could be visited by auditors that have little or even no practical experience of dealing with the Higher Education Sector. Whilst the Home Office have assured the sector that the HEAT team expertise will not be lost and that all auditors will be fully trained this has yet to be tested.

What are the key compliance areas universities should adhere to

All of this provides more than enough reasons for universities to ensure that they are fully compliant with immigration law and more than ready for a post licence audit. Fortunately, there is still plenty of time for universities to prepare themselves and ensure they are up to speed with the compliance duties that are expected of them.

In regard to this, the five key areas of compliance to which universities are expected to adhere are;

• Monitoring Immigration Status
• Maintaining Tier 4 Student’s Contact Details
• Recruitment practices and English Language
• Migrant Tracking and Monitoring
• BCA plus general other duties