Children applying to British boarding schools are being treated like terrorists and benefit scroungers, a leading head will say today in an attack on Government ministers and new visa regulations.

Rather than being welcomed for the boost they give to the economy - worth an estimated £300 million each year - foreign children and young teenagers are viewed with suspicion and deterred by new immigration legislation.

About a quarter of the 67,000 pupils who board come from overseas, but Britain’s status as a world leader in boarding education could be under threat, experts warn. Foreign families wanting their children to start school in September are falling foul of stringent visa requirements.

Melvyn Roffe, chairman of the Boarding Schools’ Association(BSA) and principal of Wymondham College, a state day and boarding school, will attack the government in his opening address to the association’s annual conference in Oxfordshire.

He is expected to say: “I have a message for Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister: Minister, will you please expend at least as much effort in encouraging students from other countries to contribute to the British economy by coming to British boarding schools, as you do in putting bureaucratic hurdles in their way?

“British boarding schools are world leaders, British education is a strong brand in a highly competitive international market. People want to come here because they like it here and value what we have to offer.

“But they won’t come if you treat everyone who applies as though the very fact of their making an application makes them a potential benefit scrounger or terrorist. And the whole country will be the poorer - in many different ways - if those students choose to go to America or Australia or Canada as a result.”

Despite their old-fashioned reputation for dormitories and gruel, many boarding schools have transformed themselves - and their images - in recent years. Most boast cutting edge sports and music facilities, individual or shared bedrooms, and plenty of pastoral support.

Pupil numbers at boarding schools were higher than ever last year, according to figures released last week, but this is threatened by a new system of multiple visas. These require children coming to Britain for summer programmes to have one visa, and a different one if they are studying here for a year.

But they can not hold more than one visa simultaneously, and must return to their country of origin - often China or Russia - to reapply. Some schools have been told that the visa is linked to an institution, so pupils can not transfer between schools without returning home and reapplying for another visa.

Christopher Greenfield, head of Sherborne International College and vice-chairman of the BSA, described the rules as a “victory of paranoia”.

He said: “We don’t know what the full effect will be until the new academic year in September. I was expecting seven new pupils this term, and two have been delayed because of visas. If the same proportion have problems next year it could potentially cost us more than £1 million.

“Britain is a world leader in boarding and these government adjustments to visa regulations could be a very expensive reform for the country. Once children go all the way back home to reapply, the chance of them waiting another two or three months to come back again is much reduced.

“The government has introduced yet another challenge to the future of boarding schools by making it difficult for students. Many come here on summer programmes in preparation for taking up a place, but now can not hold more than one visa.

“Children are being treated with suspicion, it’s a victory for the anti-immigration lobby over the education sector.” Dr Greenfield added that civil servants had responded to complaints by “thinking on their feet and sticking on little refinements” at the last minute, which had helped in some cases.

But overall these adjustments had resulted in confusion on the part of schools and recruitment agents working abroad, who were now unsure of the exact rules.

Dr Greenfield said: “It’s still a work in progress, which underlines the fact that the thing was not thought through properly for children.”

A Home Office spokesman admitted that someone doing a summer course would enter as a child visitor, and would have to return home to apply for a standard child student visa to study at a school.

But he denied that children had to return to their country of origin if they changed schools, as long as both schools were approved by the Home Office and the new course met requirements.

He said: “Foreign students play a huge part in the UK’s cultural and economic wealth.

“We will always welcome legitimate students who are coming here to receive a first rate education. The new rules that have come into force benefit talented, legitimate students making the most of our world leading educational institutions.”

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