from march 31 uk is introducing a new student visa system which will place greater responsibility on universities and colleges in an attempt to weed out bogus students and facilitate genuine applications it is called tier 4 of the points based system pbs wherein applicants need to score 40 points in order to qualify for a student visa 30 points for a visa letter issued by a licensed sponsor and 10 points for showing you have enough money to cover your course fees and living costs maintenancethe visa letter is an unconditional offer from an education provider universitycollege it shows that the education provider will act as the students immigration sponsor is confident that heshe is capable of doing the course of study for which heshe has applied and accepts responsibility for the student while heshe is in the uk under tier 4 we will see education providers taking the onus of ensuring a prospective students ability and english language proficiency said chris dix regional director south asia and gulf uk border agency ukba he added that with the universitycollege acting as the immigration sponsor the visa officer will mainly be responsible for checking whether the student is capable of financing hisher study and stay in the uk however another change resulting from the inclusion of a visa letter is that students will now be tied to one education providerfurther elaborating dix said many students receive multiple offer letters which makes it increasingly difficult to keep track of which universitycollege they eventually enrol in but with the new visa tying a student down to a specific universitycollege this will no longer be the case this will further ensure that those going to the uk on a student visa are in fact there to study so while students may still receive multiple visa letters they can use only one to apply for the visa if the student wants to change institutions after obtaining the visa heshe would need to take permission from the ukbadix said the objective of such a move is to help students be more confident of the education they are paying for as only education providers approved by ukba will be able to provide visa letters so far he added 1200 education providers have signed up highlighting other aspects of the new system dix said students who successfully complete a bachelors programme or higher can apply for a work visa under tier 1 poststudy and highly skilled workers within a year of graduating this allows them to stay and work in the uk for another two years also it is not necessary for the student to return to india as the application for switching from a student visa to a work visa can be made while in the uk itself