LANGUAGE schools and colleges across Oxford could be forced to close if proposed clampdowns on student visas go ahead.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced a review of student visas in an attempt to cut down on immigrants using courses as a cover to work illegally in Britain.

But Jenny Wasilewski, principal at the Oxford Language Centre and director of Abacus College in Gloucester Green, warned toughening up rules would mean genuine students finding it harder to get visas.

That would prompt many to go elsewhere for their education — having a huge knock-on effect on Oxford’s economy.

Mrs Wasilewski said: “We are already losing business to places like America or Canada because we are making rules impossible to follow.

“It would put many colleges out of business if people were not allowed in for courses below degree level.

“Even places like St Clare’s and d’Overbroeck’s, which take international students, will be affected.”

The list of approved colleges has already been cut from 4,000 to 1,800 nationally, but plans such as banning students from working, and raising the minimum standard of English required could act as a deterrent to potential students.

Colleges sign up to different accreditation schemes so exact numbers are not known, but there are dozens of schools in the city, which attract thousands of foreign students each year and employ hundreds of people.

The shorter six-month student visitor visa would be unaffected by the proposals, with the impact being on courses longer than six months but shorter than a degree.

Mrs Wasilewski said: “If you tell somebody from Iran they can only come for six months, then you have to go back to Iran and get a new visa, that person may be drafted into military service if he has to return, so he won’t come to England, he will go somewhere else.

“People come sponsored by their embassies and go back and create really important links with our country.

“People in Oxford are genuine students who choose to come here because of its reputation, and I believe abuses are rare.”

She said in the past she had refused applications from prospective students when she did not believe they were genuine and that vigorous tracking and monitoring systems were already in place.

Mrs Wasilewsi said: “We all want to eliminate the bogus colleges because it give us and British education a bad name.”

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith said he would be happy to take up the concerns of local colleges and schools which made a “significant” contribution to the local economy.

He said: “The colleges and universities are enormously important to the economy and cultural life of the city — it’s one of our biggest strengths.

“However, there is an important balance to get right here because some fraudulent operations have been abusing the student visa system to facilitate illegal immigration.

“It is in everybody’s interests that that is tackled but, at the same time, legitimate colleges have got to be able to operate efficiently – and that means enabling genuine students to come here.”

The review, carried out jointly by the Home Office and the Department for Business, is due to report back next month.