THE leader of Oxford City Council has raised concerns about the possibility of Oxford taking on hundreds of students thrown out by London Metropolitan University.

Some 2,600 students face deportation after the Government took away the university’s right to teach foreign students from outside the EU unless they find places on a new course.

Summertown-based Magna Carta College, which has 100 pupils on business courses starting this year, said it had the infrastructure in place to take up to 500 new students on business degree courses.

But Oxford City Council leader Bob Price, pictured, expressed reservations about the prospect.

He said: “A major influx would put strain on the overall supply of accommodation for students which is very delicately balanced between in-house accommodation and accommodation in the community.

“The other dimension is that, from an economic point of view, any additional students into the city adds to the economic vitality and in that sense can be welcomed. But we have to counterbalance that with the pretty negative effects it can have on housing.”

College dean David Faulkner said because of Government changes which forbade students at private colleges from working during their studies, numbers had plummeted.

He said: “There were 2,000 private sector colleges doing degrees, now there’s 200 or less.

“The private colleges left all give a very high quality of education and are judged to have done so, but none of them have enough students.

“There will be no deficiency in private colleges absorbing the students, we could take 500 with no problem.”