Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on what date her Department began to record details of sponsorship of non-EU nationals entering the UK on student visas.

The sponsorship of non-EU students was introduced in three stages:

Educational Institutions were able to make an application for a licence to sponsor non-EU students under Tier 4 of the Points Based System from July 2008.

Non–EU student applications under Tier 4 of the Points-Based System were introduced on 31 March 2009, and from this date onwards institutions had students linked to their sponsor licence.

From 22 February 2010 all non-EU Tier 4 student applications had to be supported by a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies, an electronic document assigned by a Tier 4 sponsor, which institutions are required to monitor and report against, and this activity was recorded by the Home Office.