Visa scandal kills University of Wales

The University of Wales, the second-largest in Britain, is being broken up following a scandal over foreign students hoping for British visas, officials said. Hugh Thomas, the chairman of the university, quit Friday, The Daily Telegraph reported. The university was founded in 1893 and includes institutions around Wales. They will now become independent universities or combine to form new ones. Trinity Saint David in Carmarthen and Lampeter and Swansea Metropolitan will merge and retain the name as the University of Wales: Trinity Saint David. The university has been hit with a series of scandals involving affiliated foreign colleges that award University of Wales degrees. Last year, Malaysian singing star Fazley Yaakob, who headed an affiliate in his homeland, turned out to have faked his qualifications, and a Bangkok affiliate turned out to be illegal. The latest scandal involves Rayat London College. A report last week said foreign students there were sold the answers to exams that allowed them to enter a University of Wales MBA program with a British visa. The Border Agency is investigating the charges and the college has been suspended.