The National Identity Scheme gets under way tomorrow when the first ID cards start being issued to non-EEA foreign nationals. The move coincides with the launch of a consultation on the secondary legislation that will enable cards to be issued to UK nationals, starting with airport workers in late 2009.

Cambridge academics and community leaders have banded together to attack the introduction of ID cards. They fear the new cards will deter overseas students from coming to the city to study - plunging Cambridge into an economic crisis.

South Tyneside College chiefs have welcomed new Government rules to fingerprint all overseas students.

Fifty would-be foreign students, mostly Chinese, have been excluded from Newcastle University for faking applications with forged academic certificates.

Under new visa arrangements to deter bogus students, from March next year students will have to be sponsored by a UK Border Agency-licensed education institution and supply their fingerprints. The measure forms part of Tier 4 of the points-based system.

A Nigerian immigrant was caught out by border officials after he told them he would make a 900 mile commute every day. The man claimed that he had a place at a university in Northern Ireland yet would live in Essex - and produced false papers to back up his claim.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has unveiled the design for the controversial new identity card.