What should universities be for?

The Home Office’s latest measures on international student recruitment raise questions that go beyond immigration policy. Under new rules, universities will be judged against stricter visa refusal, enrollment and course completion targets. While presented as a response to “visa abuse”, these measures also extend the role of immigration compliance in shaping how university performance is assessed.
In a new blog post, Nando Sigona argues that the debate should not only focus on institutional compliance. We should also ask what it means for students to study under a system of continuous immigration monitoring, where universities, landlords and banks are increasingly involved in immigration enforcement.