Around 2,600 foreign students could be deported from Britain after their university was stripped of its ability to sponsor visas for pupils beyond the European Union, the government announced Thursday. The move provoked dismay from students and accusations that the move by the Conservative-led government, which is bent on reducing immigration, could damage Britain’s global reputation.

London Metropolitan University has lost its “highly trusted status” because a survey found significant problems with the qualifications of many of its foreign students, Immigration Minister Damian Green said.

In a “significant proportion” of cases, there was no documentation that students had a good standard of English, Green said, and there was no proof that half of those sampled were attending lectures. He said the sampling of the university’s foreign students indicated that more than a quarter did not have current permission to be in the country.

“Any one of those breaches would be serious,” Green told BBC radio. “We found all three of those breaches at London Metropolitan.”

A degree from a U.K. university is highly prized by many students abroad, and those from outside the European Union often pay higher fees than residents. The British government, which has cracked down on immigration in multiple ways, has pointed to student visas as a category ripe for abuse by those who may instead be looking for work.

London Metropolitan has 30,000 students, and 2,600 are affected by the government’s decision, said university spokesman Nick Hansen. Students from other European Union countries don’t need visas.
The affected students will have 60 days to find new sponsors once they are formally notified by the government, or they could be deported. A task force has been set up to help genuine students who otherwise qualify for visas, Universities Minister David Willetts said, but with the fall term imminent students have little time to find new sponsors and courses.