Chinese Embassy in the UK pays great attention to the revocation of London Metropolitan University’s license to recruit international students as a “Highly Trusted Sponsor” by the UK Boarder Agency on August 29. According to the instructions of Ambassador Liu Xiaoming, the person in charge of the Education Section of the Embassy promptly reacted by holding emergency meetings with the persons in charge of the relevant departments, including the British Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the British University and College Union and the British Council. The Education Section also keeps close contacts with the Higher Education Funding Council for England and London Metropolitan University to express concern to the British side and urged it to properly handle the resulting problems in various aspects an ensure the rights and interests of the Chinese students.

According to the relevant British authorities, this is an isolated incident and will not spread to other universities in the UK. The British side has formed a special joint working group, set up a transfer information centre and adopted other measures to help the affected legitimate students to transfer and solve other related issues.

The Chinese Embassy also immediately verified the number of the affected students and fully understands their needs through every possible channel and report the information to the school authorities and government departments in time. The information provided by the London Metropolitan University officials show that there are a total of 320 Chinese students in the school for the year 2011-2012, and among them about 106 students are rather seriously affected by the incident. On the afternoon of September 4, the Embassy’s Education Section specially invited some affected Chinese students to have a discussion. The Education Section reported the current situation and the information learned by the Embassy and advised the students to remain calm, keep in touch with the school and patiently handle the transfer matters properly.