Middlesex College was a fake college, established in 2003 for the purpose of issuing long-tern student visas to the UK. The college was originally based in Hayes, but later moved to premises in central London.
The college allegedly were offering courses in anything from fashion and business to computing and law at undergraduate and post-graduate level. The college claimed that some of these courses were being run on behalf of genuine universities.
The college ran only a small number of courses in basic English, and was largely a front for conning genuine students who wished to study in the UK and the authorities into granting visas for bogus students.
The founders of the college were arrested at their home addresses by the officers of the UK Border Agency from the criminal and financial investigation team in February 2009.
At the same time, the officers raided the premises of the college, seizing hundreds of documents relating to students and the college. They found the teaching areas at the college consisted of 4 small rooms. At the time, the college claimed to have around a thousand students enrolled.
The founders were also printing the signatures of genuine former members of staff on bogus qualification certificates and enrolment forms to add a cover of respectability.
Famous quotes containing the word college:
“here
to this college on the hill above Harlem
I am the only colored student in my class.”
—Langston Hughes (1902–1967)