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Thousands of foreign students in London are being fingerprinted before classes in a clampdown on illegal immigration.
The London School of Commerce is using US army scanners to record the details of every student on campus and is threatening to report truants to the Home Office.
Managers have ordered the college's 3,500 students to clock in to lectures with a print from their left and right forefinger or risk being thrown out.
There is growing concern that illegal immigrants exploit private colleges as a backdoor route into Britain, with students using them to secure visas.
Home Office officials also fear they could be targeted by terrorists - 10 men arrested over a suspected bomb plot in Manchester in April were registered as students.
LSC manager Rajiv Gupta said the fingerprint system was crucial. "We want bona fide students - not people who can't be bothered or are abusing the system. If they are mucking around we don't want them," he said.
"If a student misses three sessions we will send them a letter and put them on probation. If things don't improve we will terminate [their position] and inform the Home Office."
Under the scheme, the first of its kind in the UK, students give their fingerprints and visa details at the beginning of the year.
During each lecture or tutorial they sign in by registering their prints on a machine.
If they are missing a text is sent to their mobile phone and an email to their laptop to tell them to explain themselves.
Staff at the LSC in Southwark have also been told to report students to the Border Agency if they miss more than five lectures in a row without a plausible explanation.
Every year the college reports about eight of its students to the Home Office - one student was deported after she was found to be working 24 hours a week, four more than is legal.
LSC chairmanLord Tomlinson said: "Some universities might think their job is to teach and the pupil's job is to turn up, but we also see it as our job to get them into class."
Student Sabrina Nurkoo, 28, from Mauritius said: "My attendance is 100 per cent. We have already given out fingerprints to get our visas and if this means only real students come here then it's a good thing.
"You don't want people working or getting into terrorism as it gives us a bad name."
Since April all overseas students have had to carry biometric identity cards, which are issued once the Home Office has checked the fingerprints of those on their "watchlist".
Universities have also been told to check students' sponsors and monitor absences.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: "We have made the system for foreign students tougher than ever.
"Before a student can come here we run them against watchlists and we expect institutions to alert us if a student misses sessions."
Reader views (14)
I know about 100 bogus students who are working two, three jobs a week. And about a dozen students who got HSMP visa with fake documents or by setting up fake business to prove they are high earners. There is a cottage industry of faker to cater for these people for price. Many thanks to Labour and its incompetent Home office.
- Sayed, Whitechaple, 30/01/2010 23:52
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I know at least 250 students who never go to any college but working two full time jobs together and sendig back home at least 12oo pounds every month and not even payin taxes.
- Dr. Omar, dartford,uk, 31/12/2009 18:56
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Im probably gonna re-think to come studying in the UK!
- Prospective Student, Non EU, 06/10/2009 01:17
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Just one more excuse to watch over and control people's choices and lives.
Honestly, I don't know how anyone could support this.
If my school did that, i would just drop out.
- Alicia Perez, NYC, 06/10/2009 00:17
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they will chip every one , this the beginning.
- Alex, LA, 06/10/2009 00:17
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>> 10 men arrested over a suspected bomb plot in Manchester in April were registered as students
and they were subsequently released after no evidence was found against them.
- Adam, Harrow, UK, 06/10/2009 00:17
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This should have been done years ago.
- David., Chertsey.UK., 06/10/2009 00:17
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"We have made the system for foreign students tougher than ever."
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
After hundreds of fake language schools have been opened right under the noses of these incompetent communist idiots.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 06/10/2009 00:17
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We are getting very close to a police state.I wonder what will be next on the list may be checking the finger prints of all those getting on the trains or bus.Do they have a data protection policy?. what will the colleges or universities do with those finger prints?.
- Seanr, London, 06/10/2009 00:17
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12 years too late! Uncontrolled mass immigration has
been a cornerstone of Labour's social engineering
experiment to change the ethnic balance of this
country. Just another gimmick from this
despicable mob wrecking the country.
And how can we have a 'Border Agency' when we
don't have any borders anymore, thanks to the
corrupt EU?
- Lb, Bromley, 06/10/2009 00:17
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Another excuse to role out their biometric surveillance society. I give it 5 years and biometric registration will be a necessity for all school pupils to 'protect us from terrorism' and other such nonsense.
- Jeremy, London England, 06/10/2009 00:17
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I think they should uphold the rule of law and govern by the rules set forth by the United States Constitution, as they swore they would with their oaths of office.
Back in the sixties the government came into the schools and brainwashed us with the idea we needed to control the population because it was rising so fast. They said the roads would become crowded and we would run out of things like water.
They unleashed abortions, birth control pills, and other forms of Family Planning.
To allow the country to be over run with the criminals in businesses illegal labor while the criminals in the government aid and abet the invasion is a travesty against mankind.
They have seen to it our children were killed to control the population at the same time allowing the world to export their population problems here.
What about our sacrifices, many made against our will?
P.S. We still haven't recovered from the last time the criminals in business were allowed to bring in their slaves.
- Carson, Fremont USA, 06/10/2009 00:17
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My God! In my day you might have had to see the principal if you missed a few lessons at high school... and at university it was up to you. Now you miss a lesson and you're reported to the Home Office! 1984 is well and truly here...
- Rz, London, UK, 06/10/2009 00:17
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The question is New World Order and Big Brother is almost on top of us, what are we going to do to stop it?
- Scott, teesside, 06/10/2009 00:17
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