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Comments linked with an announcement on a new "bogus students" crackdown has threatened the country's multi-billion university sector, according to a group that represents British universities. They suggested that overseas students were no longer welcome in Britain and were instead choosing to study in North America and Australia.

The Immigration Minister admitted yesterday there may be widespread abuses of a visa scheme that provides foreign students with the chance to enrol at UK institutions after irregularities were found at a Scottish university.

A university has excluded 50 foreign students it believes used forged certificates to enhance their applications. It said it regretted having to exclude the students because many of them appeared to be victims of bogus "agents", based either in China or Britain (49 students came from China and one from Taiwan), who were paid to submit applications, including supporting documents, on their behalf. The forgeries, mainly certificates for English language qualifications or degrees awarded by other universities, are of such high quality that they could not have been detected by the usual checks carried out by admissions officers. The university is introducing a number of changes to its admissions procedures, one of which will be to draw up and publish on its website a list of approved agents.