majority were foreign students on Tier 4 Visas, principally from Asia, of which only four had English as their first language. Warnborough College UK is designated by the Accreditation Service for International Colleges as an "ASIC Premier College"., which permits its students to obtain short-term study visas in the UK, but such accreditation is not recognized for any other purpose. Warnborough College Ireland has an office in Dublin. Warnborough College Ireland is not accredited by any known organization. Warnborough College Ireland courses are not recognised by Ireland's Department of Education, the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC) or the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland (NQAI). In February 2008, Sean O'Foghlu, chief executive of NQAI told the Irish Independent that because Warnborough College is not a recognised higher education institution or awarding body the qualifications are "effectively worthless". In July 2008, HETAC denied the college's application for accreditation. Warnborough sought leave to take judicial review of the denial but withdrew its appeal in November 2008 after HETAC agreed to permit Warnborough to submit a new accreditation application. The Oregon Office of Degree Authorization named Warnborough in its former list of unaccredited universities, with its then administrator, Alan Contreras, characterising Warnborough College as "a diploma mill that has managed to move back and forth between Britain and Ireland for decades without either government's being able to put an end to it." Controversy Warnborough operated without significant controversy until the 1980s, when it began offering postgraduate programs. In 1987, BBC Radio broadcast a 25-minute long expose, revealing that Warnborough had no authority to issue degrees, and characterized Warnborough as a "nightmare" of low academic standards, inadequate teaching, high cost, and poor facilities and living conditions. In the aftermath of the BBC report, enrollment declined drastically, creating a financial crisis because Warnborough had taken out a $2 million high-interest loan, which could only be paid off by recruiting more students. In 1995, Warnborough decided to recruit graduating high-school students, holding itself out as a four-year college. When the first class of American, Russian and Japanese 4-year students arrived in 1995 several American students alleged that Warnborough misled them into believing it was affiliated with Oxford University. When students discovered that Warnborough had no connection with Oxford University about fifteen or twenty of them - roughly half the new enrollment, immediately withdrew from the college with some intending to sue for refunds. The college