UK deports 7 Chinese students since August

The local border authority has seen an increase in the number of students deported from the UK, with seven repatriated since August for failing to meet the country's more stringent visa requirements, according to a press release issued Wednesday.

Five of the seven students were deported because they changed their majors or schools without notifying UK immigration authorities, and two were deported due to poor academic performance, according to a press release from the Shanghai Airport Frontier Inspection Station.

In the latest case, a Jiangsu Province native surnamed Huang returned to Shanghai Wednesday after he was denied entry into the UK, according to the press release. Although the border authority didn't know the reason for certain, it speculated that UK authorities revoked Huang's visa because he was unable to start his third year at university after flunking a final exam last semester.

A series of new student visa rules in the UK went into effect in April. The British government has scaled up efforts to find students who don't abide by the terms of their visas, according to a press release from the British Consulate General in Shanghai. While the more stringent requirements are not targeted on any particular nationality, Chinese students are the single largest group of foreign students in the UK.

"We welcome genuine Chinese students and we value very highly the contribution they make to the UK. We do ask however, that all international students (who are there on visas) abide by the conditions of their visa - this is only fair," said Brian Davidson, British Consul-General in Shanghai, in a statement.

The Shanghai Airport Frontier Inspection Station usually receives one or two deported students each year from around the world, not just the UK, said Yang Xiajie, the station's press officer.