Daily Mail group behind drive to bring foreign students to UK
The Daily Mail
For some it is the moral backbone of Middle England, for others its frequent articles attacking immigration have earnt it the nickname 'the Daily Hate'. Recent pieces have not only lambasted the government for its "catastrophic" immigration policy but also targeted the large numbers of foreign nationals choosing to study at British universities.
There could, however, be red faces at The Daily Mail after The Journal's discovery that the Mail's parent organisation, the Daily Mail and General Trust Plc, is the sole owner of Hobsons, a student recruitment service specialising in attracting international students to study at British universities.
Hobsons, according to a presentation from its 2007 annual conference, offers British universities the "opportunity to gain competitive advantage over other higher education institutions and other countries" in the recruitment of foreign students. This aim is in stark contrast to a recent Daily Mail article complaining how the UK "now admits 300,000 foreign students a year to study in Britain"—boosting university finances—"but without the faintest idea of how many leave when they are meant to."
In 2006 six British universities, including Brunel and Robert Gordon, took the decision to outsource their recruitment of foreign students to Hobsons. Applicants are under the impression they are dealing directly with the universities but calls and emails are transferred to a service centre based in London administered by Hobsons employees. Academics at these institutions, however, are ultimately responsible for selecting the students Hobsons recruits for them. The company have not disclosed the commission rate they charge each institution for their services.
The University of Edinburgh has been forging increasingly close links with Hobsons in recent years, though the university does not currently outsource its recruitment of its international students. A freedom of information request placed by The Journal has revealed that Timothy O'Shea, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, claimed expenses for a taxi fare to attend a meeting held by the company in London on 31 October 2006. The University of Edinburgh also holds bonds in Hobsons parent group, the Daily Mail and General Trust, in its investment portfolio.
The news of the Daily Mail's ownership of Hobsons has been met with bemused reactions from international students at the University of Edinburgh. Marina Aung, a forth year History student from Pakistan, said "its blatantly hypocritical but its also quite funny. But the Mail's line on immigration is dangerous. In fact they are probably the last people I would want owning a company that recruits foreign students." Costanza Cappello, a Philosophy undergraduate from Rome also saw the funny side. "If I were them I would be quite embarrassed. Considering some of the articles they print on immigration I wonder what their readers would think?"
In February The Daily Mail came under widespread criticism after an email was leaked offering to pay £100 for "horror stories" of migrant workers to use in an article. Diane Appleyard, a freelance features writer for the Mail, wrote, "I am urgently looking for anonymous horror stories of people who have employed Eastern European staff, only for them to steal from them, disappear, or have lied about their resident status. We can pay you £100 for taking part, and I promise it will be anonymous, just a quick phone call." Ms Appleyard has since refused to respond to any enquiries regarding the leak.
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