A film made by Sheffield University has been released in a bid to explain the UK student visa process to talented students from abroad.
The cameras went behind the scenes at a Beijing UK Visa Application Centre in order to speak to Chinese students about the process and demonstrate the steps they go through to get hold of a UK visa when applying to study in Britain.
Among the students in the video are Qu Yinjiao and Lu Meng who applied through Beijing's British Embassy to enrol in universities in Britian. They were just two of the 65,000 students who applied through the embassy last year.
Professor Sir Keith Burnett, vice-chancellor of the University of Sheffield, commented on the film: “It is important for us to show that we respect the commitment they are making, and that talented Chinese students who are so crucial to our universities and to the UK will be welcomed and treated well when they come to study with us.”
James Brokenshire, immigration and security minister, who attended the launch of the film added: “We continue to welcome the brightest and the best students and the latest statistics show visa applications from university students have risen by seven per cent in the year ending December 2013.”
He dubbed the film “an excellent example” of the government's and the higher education sector's efforts to encourage international students to consider British universities as an option.
A similar film was shot in India last year as part of the We Are International project. Both films are aiming to showcase the efforts that British universities are going to to make overseas students welcome on their courses.