NA & Others (Cambridge College of Learning)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Senior Immigration Judge Storey |
| Judgment Date | 05 June 2009 |
| Neutral Citation | [2009] UKAIT 31 |
| Court | Asylum and Immigration Tribunal |
| Date | 05 June 2009 |
[2009] UKAIT 31
Asylum and Immigration Tribunal
THE IMMIGRATION ACTS
SENIOR IMMIGRATION JUDGE Storey
SENIOR IMMIGRATION JUDGE P R Lane
SENIOR IMMIGRATION JUDGE Pinkerton
For the Appellant: Mr I Macdonald QC, instructed by Ellis Taylor LLP
For the Respondent: Mr G Clarke, instructed by the Treasury Solicitor
NA & Others (Cambridge College of Learning) Pakistan
Cambridge College of Learning (CCOL) never ran a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Management course or a Postgraduate Diploma in IT course. Accordingly for a person applying for leave to remain under the Tier 1 (Post-Study Work) scheme to rely on a certificate of an award of such a diploma following a course will amount to a false representation and so will fall foul of para 322(1A) of the Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules HC 395. Such a person will also be unable to meet the requirements of para 245Z because he or she could never have undertaken such a course.
The appeals before us concern decisions refusing applications made in the second half of 2008 by three students under the new Tier 1 (Post-Study Work) scheme on the basis of having obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Management or in IT (hereafter “PgDip BM” or “PgDip IT”) from the Cambridge College of Learning (hereafter “CCOL”). Since certain facts about this college are not in dispute, we can best set the scene by explaining that, prior to its closure in early December 2008, CCOL operated from premises at 151–153 Curtain Rd, London EC2A 3QL. It appears to have opened in May 2001 and to have been first included in the Department for Education and Science's (DfES's) Register of Education and Training Providers in January 2005. (This Register, which later became the Department for Innovation, Universities and Science's (DIUS's) Register, closed as from 31 March 2009 and has been replaced by the UKBA Register of Sponsors.) In its early days the main business of the college was running English courses but by the end of 2007 it also ran a variety of courses in business, IT and tourism. Neither party was able to furnish definitive details about the history of the college, but it appears that its first Principal and owner was Mr Adil Chaudry and its second Principal and co-owner was Mr Zafar Mustafa. In mid-2008 ownership changed and Mr Said Ullah then became Principal to be followed shortly after, in September 2008, by Mr Zahid Ali Noman. The Acting Principal, Mr Kashif Hussain, told officers who visited the college on 2 December 2008 that the owners were Mr Nisar Chaudry and Mr Wasim Yousafi. A college website entry written in Spring/early Summer 2008 by Zafar Mustafa when Principal stated that two new partners had joined the management: Mr Islam Ali and Mr Zaman Gondal.
Sometime in the summer of 2008 the United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) began to be concerned about the large number of applications it was receiving for the new Tier I (Post-Study Work) scheme (which had begun on 30 June 2008) from students enclosing PgDips in either BM or IT awarded by the CCOL. By 6 October 2008 spreadsheets relating to 204 CCOL-related applications had been compiled revealing a number of anomalies. Monitoring continued over the next few weeks. A further reason for concern was that it had been reported that a significant number of applications put forward academic transcripts with identical percentage marks across all exams or modules. Over 2,500 CCOL-related applications falling into the PgDip BM or PgDip IT categories were received between 22 October 2008 and 22 December 2008. In addition, a check on the Home Office records disclosed that there were 181 students with current leave to remain within the student category to attend CCOL and a further 136 had valid entry clearance. On 31 October 2008 all CCOL-related applications were put on hold. The mounting causes for concern led to Operation Asterion, a UKBA led enforcement visit paid on 2 December 2008 by the Area 3 Criminal Investigations Team accompanied by officers from the London and South East Intelligence Unit (RIU). That visit compounded UKBA's concerns about the college and led to them taking steps to ensure that the college was removed from the DIUS register on 4 December 2008. It appears that the college then closed on 8 December 2008 and it has never re-opened. On 22 December 2008 UKBA issued instructions to caseworkers to refuse all immigration applications based on CCOL studies or awards.
Given this background it is inevitable that we must decide whether or not the respondent's concerns about CCOL are justified, but we would emphasise at the outset that the respondent's position on this particular college is not that it was a bogus college per se. Indeed he accepts that there were no real causes for concern until the second half of 2008 and that, even after that date, the college continued to run a range of bona fide courses in a legitimate way. The respondent's concerns are confined to claims made about the college's history of running Postgraduate diploma courses and to the claims made by the three appellants in these appeals (in common with a large number of other appellants, we are told) that CCOL ran PgDips in BM or IT.
The first appellant, a citizen of Pakistan, came to the UK on 3 September 2006 as a student and was granted further leave to remain until 11 December 2007 and again until 31 December 2008. On 24 November 2008 she applied for leave to remain under the Tier 1 (Post-Study Work) Scheme. She enclosed with her application a certificate from the CCOL signed by “the Director”, Saif Ullah, and saying she had been awarded a “[PgDip BM] having successfully completed an approved course of study and having satisfied the board of examiners on September 2008”. With it there was a letter from the college dated 9 September 2008 headed “To Whom It May Concern” signed (illegibly) under the title, “Programme Leader”. It stated that she had “successfully completed an approved programme of study in (Postgraduate) level 7 Business Management on a full-time programme at one of the DIUS Listed Body [sic] i.e. Cambridge College of Learning”. It gave further details of the date she had commenced her course and the date she had completed it. It also stated “We would be grateful if you could issue the student with PSW-Post Study Work Visa”. A separate document, headed “Transcript of Academic Record” bearing the same date and also signed, illegibly, below the title, “Programme Leader”, stated that her course title was PgDip in BM at an NQF (Revised) Level 7 level of qualification. It gave the same details for start and finish date and the marks she had obtained for various subjects. All three documents bore the same 12-digit student reference number. On 21 January 2009 the respondent refused the first appellant's application stating that:
“I am satisfied that all the documents submitted from the [CCOL] were false, because [CCOL] has never offered a legitimate Post Graduate Qualification in Business Management …. As false documents have been submitted in relation to your application, it is refused under paragraph 322(1A) of the Immigration Rules”.
The letter went on to state that in addition the appellant did not meet the requirements of para 245Z(c) and 245Z(d) of the Immigration Rules because she had been awarded no points for “Attributes” under Appendix A or for “English language” under Appendix B. The letter further stated that the respondent was also satisfied that the appellant had used deception in her application and that:
“Although the decision would be one for an entry clearance officer to make in the future, this means that it is likely that any future applications for entry clearance or leave to enter the UK will be refused under para 320(7B) of the Immigration Rules (unless it would breach your rights under the Human Rights Act 1998 or the Refugee Convention) for the following period starting on the date on which you leave the UK following this refusal:
— One year if you leave voluntarily, without our having to pay or contribute to the costs of your departure;
— Five years if you leave voluntarily at the Government's expense;
— Ten years if we remove or deport you…”
The second appellant, a citizen of Mauritius, came to the UK as a student on 16 September 2005 and received several grants of further leave to remain in the same capacity, the last expiring on 30 November 2008. On 24 October 2008 she applied for leave to remain under the Tier 1 (Post-Study Work) scheme. Accompanying her application were three documents in very similar form to those of the first appellant but with different details of when she was awarded her certificate (August 2008), when she had commenced the course, when she had completed it and her marks for different subjects. All three documents also showed a 12 digit student reference number. The respondent decided on 20 January 2009 to refuse that application. The respondent's reasons were in near-identical terms to those given in the first appellant's refusal.
The third appellant is a citizen of Pakistan who has been in the UK as a student since 1 September 2001. His last grant of further leave to remain was until 30 November 2008. On 4 November 2008 he applied under the Tier 1 (Post-Study Work) scheme for further leave to remain. Together with his application he submitted three documents which had the same standard wording as in the case of the first two appellants except that the CCOL certificate was a Certificate of Award of a PgDip IT dated August 2008 (it too was signed by Saif Ullah under the title, “Director”) and his “To Whom It May Concern” letter from the college dated 20 August 2008 stated that he had commenced his PgDip in IT at a Level 7 course in IT on 11 November 2007 and...
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