“Sponsors must notify us where a student has missed 10 expected contacts” – extract from the UK Border Agency Tier 4 Guidance

This is a duty established in the Tier 4 Sponsor Guidance that may catch out the unsuspecting sponsor. The UKBA have provided clear guidance on what you should do once you have established that a Tier 4 student has missed 10 ‘expected contacts’ (report it to them!), but what is not so clear is how ‘expected contacts’ is defined.

The UKBA’s published guidance does provide some examples of what may constitute ‘expected contacts’ or ‘interactions’, but it makes it clear that the list it provides is not exhaustive and is then backed up by a rather grey and ambiguous explanation of how sponsors are to determine what is an expected contact. In their own words, “it is entirely the responsibility of the sponsor to judge whether a student’s absence is an authorised, or unauthorised one”.

With this in mind, it is for the sponsor to establish in its own mind exactly what equates to an ‘expected contact’ appropriate to the organisation and the nature of the courses it offers, and to effectively communicate this with both staff and students, with robust procedures in place to ensure that any unauthorised absence is flagged-up, recorded and, if necessary, reported to the UKBA.

So how is this done in practice? With such vague guidance for Tier 4 Sponsor licences, it is advised that a belt-and-braces approach is adopted when establishing the required safeguards. In order to do this, it is prudent to examine the processes and systems of education providers that have obtained the highest level of sponsorship licence: the Highly Trusted Sponsor Licence. Organisations with such licences have reassured the UKBA that they have in place strong procedures and systems to ensure that unauthorised absences are clearly defined for both staff and students, that these will be made aware to the appropriate persons and that, finally, they convert this intelligence into information they can report to the UKBA. If you can show the UKBA that you have similar systems, then you are in a far stronger position to demonstrate that you have the required systems to satisfy the A-grading licence, at the very least.

CASE STUDY: UK University with a Highly Trusted Sponsor licence

The following points of practice are drawn from those practices and procedures adopted by recognised organisations with a Highly Trusted Sponsor licence in administering Tier 4 students:

• Appoint a dedicated supervisory/support officer that migrant students and staff may contact to clarify any issues surrounding student absence/report anything amiss – depending on the size of your organisation, this may of course be a member of staff with numerous roles. However, it is vital that a clear structure is in place to minimise the risk of the UKBA accusing you of failing to establish and enforce a robust system.
• Utilise supervision records – centralised on the student’s file
• Create supervision templates for all staff to access
• Encourage informal records of contacts with supervisory staff as further evidence
• Publish clear guidance and policy made available to students: online, posters, information packs on enrolment
• Publicise to staff and students examples of ‘expected contacts’:
  • University registration
  • Induction and orientation events
  • Supervisions, lectures, seminars, workshops, laboratory sessions, training courses
  • Supervision or training sessions held over the phone or via the internet
  • Scheduled formal assessments, presentations, vivas
  • Meetings and events
  • Reporting to administrative offices to discuss aspects of the course
  • Physical submission of work
  • Group sessions
• Publish guidance to reflect flexibility of how contact can be made at various times during the course i.e. that telephone and email contact may be more appropriate during exam/thesis writing-up time
• Encourage a commitment to recording all authorised absences and retaining alongside a student’s file
• Establish an internal reporting procedure. One such example:
  • 3 consecutive expected contacts missed: appointed staff member alerted and warning email sent to student, reminding them of their commitments and responsibilities to attend all expected contacts
  • 7 consecutive expected contacts missed: a senior staff member alerted triggering a warning letter to be sent by registered delivery/courier to the student warning them that they will be reported to the UKBA if there are 3 further missed contacts and requesting an explanation in response as to why they have been absent
  • Following this, the student’s activity should be monitored very closely, with all reasonable steps taken to establish communication with senior members of staff
  • Following 10 missed contacts, all services available to the student by the university are blocked and the UKBA notified.