I used to work in this space (student visa / student visa fraud). This is the right call and it's for simpler reasons:
The easiest way into the country is on a student visa. Student visas are vulnerable to fraud. 9-11 hijackers were here on student visas.
USCIS relies on the universities to monitor where their international students are. Universities must enforce strict attendance policies for international students and a no show to class must be reported within 24 hours. If I recall, 3 days of no show and your visa is revoked.
Online programs cannot enforce the attendance/location requirements set forth by USCICS. Allowing those students to stay would give them an easy entryway into the country and then a lack of monitoring when they arrive.
The article is right about these students being an absolute cash cow for universities. International students have to provide evidence that they can pay for their program in cash before their visa is approved.
There are 2 main types of fraud out there:
Fake universities - set-up to look a lot like a university. 100% international population. May appear to offer typical programs (BA in Business, MBA, etc) but actual class is an hour a week for attendance purposes. No real assignments, 1 faculty member, etc.
Fake students - most often these are people that came into the country on a genuine student visa, attended a reputable University, graduated and obtained a job. Then their job is unable to sponsor a hb1 visa so they enroll in a fake university to stay. It is common to comb the records of fake universities and find students with 3 bachelor's degrees in the same subject from 3 different universities. That is a fake student.
My family works in admin for a top 20 school, even there is fraud but it's more covert. Professors that don't do research but are importing tons of Chinese citizens to do 'research'. Pretty sure one white guy professor imports young chinese girls just to bone, but I'm sure as soon as the CCP blackmails him the tables will turn. Maybe they already have.
I used to work in this space (student visa / student visa fraud). This is the right call and it's for simpler reasons:
The easiest way into the country is on a student visa. Student visas are vulnerable to fraud. 9-11 hijackers were here on student visas.
USCIS relies on the universities to monitor where their international students are. Universities must enforce strict attendance policies for international students and a no show to class must be reported within 24 hours. If I recall, 3 days of no show and your visa is revoked.
Online programs cannot enforce the attendance/location requirements set forth by USCICS. Allowing those students to stay would give them an easy entryway into the country and then a lack of monitoring when they arrive.
The article is right about these students being an absolute cash cow for universities. International students have to provide evidence that they can pay for their program in cash before their visa is approved.
There are 2 main types of fraud out there:
Fake universities - set-up to look a lot like a university. 100% international population. May appear to offer typical programs (BA in Business, MBA, etc) but actual class is an hour a week for attendance purposes. No real assignments, 1 faculty member, etc.
Fake students - most often these are people that came into the country on a genuine student visa, attended a reputable University, graduated and obtained a job. Then their job is unable to sponsor a hb1 visa so they enroll in a fake university to stay. It is common to comb the records of fake universities and find students with 3 bachelor's degrees in the same subject from 3 different universities. That is a fake student.
My family works in admin for a top 20 school, even there is fraud but it's more covert. Professors that don't do research but are importing tons of Chinese citizens to do 'research'. Pretty sure one white guy professor imports young chinese girls just to bone, but I'm sure as soon as the CCP blackmails him the tables will turn. Maybe they already have.
It's an entire racket on an industrial scale.