LANGUAGE colleges which claim Government reforms to student visas could destroy the industry have launched a High Court challenge.

Wealthy foreign students enrolling on pre-university courses bring an estimated £74m into Oxford’s economy each year, but last month the Government introduced changes to colleges’ accreditation because of illegal immigration fears.

Top colleges across Oxford said they have been left in an impossible position, with the UK Border Agency asking them to be inspected by bodies which have no powers to inspect them, including Ofsted and the Independent Schools Inspectorate.

But until they get new accreditation, the numbers of offers they can make to students will be capped, with college principals warning it could see the number of pre-university students coming to Oxford from abroad halved.

That would mean a multi-million-pound hit to the city’s shops, pubs, and the families who host students.

Now English UK, which represents the sector, has applied for a judicial review of the Home Office’s policy.

Chief executive Tony Millns said: “Our case is simple. All the educational oversight bodies have so far said that either they are not legally empowered to inspect private sector colleges, or that our members do not fall within their remit.

“The result is that the Home Secretary has set a condition which is impossible to meet, and then has imposed a penalty for not meeting the impossible condition. This is irrational.”

The Home Office said it was committed to all colleges getting new accreditation by the end of 2012.

A spokesman said: “The Home Office, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and the Department for Education are working with the relevant inspection and accreditation bodies to finalise arrangements for the new vetting and accreditation regime.”

Oxford Consortium of Independent 6th Form and Tutorial Colleges, which represents nine leading colleges catering for students from the Far East, Russia and Africa, said wealthy students would take their business elsewhere, undermining British universities and British industry.

It is not known how many students are attracted each year, but it is thought to be thousands.

Fiona Pocock, deputy principal of Oxford International College, said Oxford Consortium welcomed a tougher inspection regime, but that they had been set impossible criteria to meet.

She said: “The response from the UK Border Agency to all the colleges has been absolutely consistent: it does not matter whether it is an expensive college with and elite clientele, or a backstreet immigration college above a chip shop, the political agenda is that immigration needs to be cut.

“There will be a massive economic impact on the city, but far more significant in the long term is the perception that has already started abroad, particularly in China, that the UK is closed for business.”