Almost half the U.K. based colleges checked on an official list of approved providers for overseas students have been struck off with some advertising online gaming sites on their websites rather than courses.

Following fears about bogus colleges, the government said it had inspected 256 colleges since 2005, leading to 124 being removed from the list.

There are about 2,000 private colleges on the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills' register.

A place at one of these colleges is a means to getting a UK student visa.
A Dius spokesman says that colleges on the register of education and training providers are now facing unannounced inspections and that those who advertise online gambling sites on their websites will be the first to go.

But Conservative university spokesman, David Willetts, expressed concern that so many colleges on the government's approved list have turned out to be bogus.
 
"It begs the question of how they got on to the list in the first place and suggests the government’s process for accrediting them is not up to scratch," said Mr Willetts.
A BBC investigation this week revealed an example of a college offering courses with no legitimate accreditation - described as "dodgy" by its own chancellor.

There has been a longstanding problem with bogus colleges - often either set up to sell fake degrees or else as part of an immigration and visa scam, allowing people to enter the UK as students.
 
The approved register of education providers was created in 2005 to prevent such abuses - requiring applicants for student visas to show that they would be attending a legitimate institution.

It also remains unclear how many of the remaining 1,750 colleges have ever been physically inspected before or after inclusion on this register.

Among those currently on the list is a college whose website content is mostly links to services including online gambling.