• The new HTS Guidance was published on 5th September 2011 in an updated version of the sponsor guidance http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/employersandsponsors/pbsguidance/guidancefrom31mar09/sponsor-guidance-t4-050911.pdf?view=Binary
• Unsurprisingly, the key elements of the HTS Guidance are much as had been set out in the consultation document. The main clarifications are in relation to transitional arrangements for A and B rated colleges; the deadline for HTS applications; and how to calculate the percentages under the mandatory and measurable requirements.
Transitional Arrangements
• HTS requires a college to have had a UKBA licence for 12 months and an A rating for 6 months. Any college that does not already have HTS and meets these criteria must apply for HTS by 9th October 2011. If a college in these circumstances does not apply before the deadline, its licence will be revoked.
• In all cases, in order to be able to continue towards HTS, a sponsor must have applied for the new educational oversight arrangements (e.g. QAA or ISI) by the deadlines set. If a college does not do so, it will become a “legacy sponsor”. A legacy sponsor will have its details removed from the Tier 4 register and its CAS allocation set to zero. Students at the college will be able to continue until the completion of their courses (or the expiry of the licence whichever is the sooner) and the college will be able to apply for CAS for them to extend their stay where necessary to complete the course. Where CAS have been issued before the college is designated as a “legacy sponsor” the student will still be allowed to apply for a visa and join the course (see paragraphs 79 – 85 of the Guidance).
• If a college has previously been refused HTS, it must re-apply for HTS no later than 6 months after the date of the UKBA letter notifying the previous refusal or by 9th October 2011, whichever is the later.
• If a college has not had a licence for 12 months, it must apply as soon as it has had the licence for 12 months. Similarly, if a college has not had an A rating for 6 months, it must apply for HTS as soon as the 6 month point is reached.
• If a college is B rated and the only reason for the B rating is the lack of a full accreditation from one of the previous bodies (e.g. ASIC/BAC); or if you have met the other conditions of your action plan; and the college has applied for accreditation by QAA/ISI by 9th September 2011 then the college can apply for and will be granted an A rating subject to there being no further concerns. The college will then be granted a proportionate number of CAS. At this point the Guidance refers back to paragraphs 179-180 on how the allocation will be calculated, which in turn refers back to the 2010/11 comparative period. This concession does not therefore appear to help those colleges who were allocated zero CAS under the interim limit because they did not issue any CAS during the comparative period.
• If a college has been B rated and has not been A rated for 6 months, the college must apply for HTS as soon as it has been A rated for 6 months.
• An application for HTS can be made up to one month before the due date but the application will not start to be processed until the due date is reached. Colleges should then expect to wait around 12 weeks whilst the application is being processed.
HTS Criteria
• The criteria are divided into the mandatory and measurable as per the consultation document and can be found in paragraph 270 of the Guidance. All calculations are based on the 12 month period prior to the date of the application.
• Refusals (mandatory less than 20%) will be calculated as a percentage of CAS you have assigned over the 12 month period and which students have used to make an application for a visa or leave to remain.
• Enrolment rate (mandatory more than 90%) is the number of students who have been issued with a visa and who have enrolled on the course. So, if 100 students were granted visas and two failed to enrol (so called “no shows”) your percentage would be 98% enrolled.
• Course completion (mandatory 85%) is the number of students whose courses were due to end during the 12 month period but who failed to complete the course. The percentage is calculated as the percentage of all students who were due to complete the course during the period. Note that this is slightly different from the measures above because it relates to those whose courses were due to END in the 12 month period. In some cases they may therefore have been issued a CAS before the start of the 12 month period. Whilst recognising what the UKBA is trying to achieve, in my view this is an unsatisfactory measure as the baseline will vary in accordance with the mix and length of courses run by the college and their recruitment policies. The UKBA also recognises that if no students were due to complete a course during the 12 month period, this criterion will not be assessed. On the positive side, the previous criteria of assessing the number of students who left within a particular segment of a course is not included under the new arrangements.
• The Guidance does not refer to exceptions for where a student has moved to another college or left the UK. We are writing to the UKBA to confirm that these exceptions still apply.
• Course progression. This covers the requirement for colleges to have confirmed academic progression on CAS as required in accordance with paragraphs 371 – 377 of the Guidance.
• If an HTS application scores less than 70 points on the measurable criteria this may be referred to as a near miss and the college will be allowed to submit a further application. The Guidance does not define what constitutes a “near miss”. The consultation document referred to a waiting period of 3 months before re-application but there is no specific timing in the Guidance only that UKBA will write and state when a further application can be made. The Guidance states that if a second application is refused, the college’s licence will be revoked; and if it is a further “near miss”, the college will become a legacy sponsor.
Applications
• A new HTS application form has been published on the UKBA website.
• The form no longer asks for the college to enter details of their percentages under the various criteria. This will in future be done by UKBA.
• The spreadsheet is still available on the website. This does not need to be sent with the application but it is recommended that colleges complete it in case it is requested and also to provide a means of self assessment as we have seen a number of cases where the data used by the UKBA has proved to be incorrect.
