Ireland is set to introduce a major crackdown on “bogus” English language schools that are being used as a “backdoor for immigration“. The new initiative comes as Dublin plans to reduce the overall number of student visas granted for English language courses.

The Minister for Higher Education, James Lawless, said that some schools are acting as a “tick box exercise” to allow people to get work permits. He confirmed a new “quality mark” for higher education institutions would be introduced to stop the abuse. These would be known as TrustEd Ireland and would ensure that schools provide genuine quality courses.

“To enjoy that award, to have that status, you must meet certain minimum requirements and they would include fairly fundamental criteria,” the minister said.

“[Criteria includes] that you are providing a reasonably strong quality course, that you are providing a certain minimum number of hours, that you have a certain degree of students signed up for it, amongst other things. It’s a quality check.”

He added that the quality mark would “ensure these schools are genuinely providing a quality educational service to their students, that they’re not being used as a convenient backdoor for immigration”.

The system will be rolled out for all colleges and universities which take in international students. The institutions will also have to play a levy to acquire the TrustEd quality mark.

Mr Lawless said the fee would act as a test of an establishment’s bona fides, the Irish Examiner reported.

“If a school is not a school, it probably won’t pay the levy and therefore it actually excludes itself in the process,” he said.

The minister explained the fee would be calculated as a percentage of the student intake and the monies raised would be ploughed back into the educational sector.

He argued the fees accrued would in effect act as an insurance policy for students.

“We’ve seen in the past where schools have collapsed overnight and students left high and dry,” he said.

“There’s a degree of insuring the system against that kind of market failure.”