All foreign students in Britain will have their fingerprints scanned in order to prove they are going to their lectures.
Newcastle University has become the first British educational institute that plans on following United Kingdoms Border Agency’s (UKBA) instructions by introducing biometric scanners in order to clamp down on illegal immigrants.
Students at the Newcastle University will be monitored through the student attendance system from start of the next academic year.
The university claims that the move is a necessary step to meet their obligation to UKBA and ensure that international students do not use student visas as a way to sneak into the country and work illegally.
Claiming that the move is ‘unnecessary and intrusive’, Newcastle Free Education Network, a student group at Newcastle University, claims that biometric scanning is over the top and infringes their privacy.
The group has organised protests against the plan, maintaining that the scanners will “turn universities into border checkpoints and will reduce university experience to the attendance of lectures alone”.
In a referendum at the Newcastle Students’ Union, 1,200 students voted against the scheme and just 320 voted in favour.
Dr Kyle Grayson, a senior lecturer of international politics at the university, said that finger scanning risked ruining the university’s reputation overseas.
“I have had international students say that they don’t pay thousands of pounds a year to be treated like they are on probation. Part of the problem is that the government has created the issue about student visas being an easy way to get into the country and work illegally, but it has been blown out of proportion. The majority of students, especially at a university like Newcastle, are genuine,” he said
Jeannette Strachan, academic registrar for student and academic services at the university, said universities needed to comply with UKBA instructions.
“As part of UKBA licence agreements, every university is obliged to carry out attendance monitoring to be able to certify at any time, to any visit by the UKBA, that an international student is present on campus and engaged in their studies. If a student or university don’t comply with UKBA requirements, that student and university are at risk of severe sanctions,” she said.