Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many non-EU students were reported to her Department by educational institutions due to (a) poor attendance and (b) other concerns about their genuineness. [114868]

Damian Green MP; Minister of State for Immigration: Tier 4 sponsors use the online Sponsor Management System to report on student activity. Sponsors select one of a number of categories when reporting.

The number of reports by sponsors using the category which most closely equates to poor attendance, "Student has missed 10 expected contacts without permission", in each year from March 2010 to March 2012 are as follows:

            Number

2010    3,100

2011    17,100

2012    3,700

Total    23,900

These figures are taken from Management Information and sponsors may have reported any individual student on multiple occasions.

The Sponsor Management System does not include a specific reporting category for concerns about genuineness.