Nigel - Your reasoning is faulty. Yes, students needed the sponsorship of Lincoln College to get Tier 2 student visas because that's the way the system works, but international students didnt come because of Lincoln College. They came because of the special course offered by Newark; apparently the only Lincoln students currently affected by Home Office policy re student visas are studying violin making. I hardly think people overseas have been talking about Lincoln College; they are looking for a special kind of course and Newwark School of Violin Making and Repair are offering it. If the Newark schools of instrument making were allowed their own status to sponsor visas for international students they could probably succeed.

My take on the matter is that it is up to Lincoln College and Newark School to sort out Ofsted and Tier 4 status* as it affects future intake, but that there is a more immediately urgent call to let students who are already attending the course to continue. I know at least one of the students has completed 3 years of the course and just has one more year to go. Large numbers of people calling for those visas to be extended may have a positive result.

(*in future, the Violin Varnish fb page mentions there is a proposal for Hull Uni. to oversee a degree for the violin course in future. There are both merits and drawbacks to such a course, which may make it harder for some students to participate. I know that when a language course I enrolled in was changed from H.N.D to degree status, I found the course less what I wanted. It became less orientated towards practical use of the language.)