Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) safeguards and (b) procedures are in place to ensure the fair and consistent operation of the Genuine Student Rule and Tier 4 interview policy by UK Visas and Immigration officers.

Interviews are conducted with international students as part of the visa application process in order to confirm that the applicant meets the requirements of the UK immigration rules, in particular that he or she is a genuine student. Entry Clearance Officers have access to detailed guidance on how the Genuine Student Rule should be implemented with reference to the relevant sections of the immigrations rules, and guidance when interviewing may be required to support decision making.

Entry Clearance Managers will conduct regular reviews on the Tier 4 decision making process and UKVI International have a specialist assurance function that reviews decision quality of PBS applications.