A new Manifesto Club report documents how red-tape visa controls have damaged UK academic life.

The report, Students Under Watch, by Valerie Hartwich, shows how visa rules have led to a massive extension of surveillance on campus, and a humiliating and hostile experience for international academics and students.

Visa rules force academics to spy on their students and report them to the UKBA for any missed classes or ‘suspicious behaviour’.

International visiting lecturers have been deported because they do not have the correct paperwork, even though they were not being paid for their lecture.

The report argues that these controls undermine the historic autonomy of the university, and the relationship of trust between academics and their students – and calls for an immediate policy review.

Download the report: Students Under Watch