Nigerian students in UK risk deportation
Following a dispute between UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman and the Department of Education, Nigerian and other immigrant students in the United Kingdom currently face a high risk of deportation after completing their studies.
Braverman is attempting to limit the length of time foreign students can remain in the UK after graduating.
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Immigrants who come to Britain to study are currently allowed to stay for two years after graduating.
However, Braverman’s proposal to reduce that to just six months, after which they must have a skilled job that qualifies them for a work visa or leave the UK, is reportedly facing opposition from the Department for Education.
The change is the most recent development in a long-running dispute over the number of international students.
Braverman pledged to reduce immigration and substantially reduce’ the number of foreign workers without skills entering the country, from 239,000 to ‘tens of thousands.
A graduate post-study work visa, which enables any student who has passed their degree to remain and work in the UK for at least two years, is one of the measures she wants to take as part of that. However, fewer international students will be eligible to apply for one.
However, education officials worry that this will make the UK less appealing to international students, who pay much more than UK students do for their courses and are a significant source of income for universities.
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The UK is one of the top choices for Nigerian students looking to study abroad.
According to recently released data from the UK’s home office, the number of study visas granted to Nigerians increased by 222.8%, with 65,929 being issued as of June 2022 as opposed to 20,427 during the same period in 2021.
Similar to this, an analysis by SBM intelligence claims that Nigerian students and their dependents in the UK made an estimated £1.9 billion contribution to the country’s economy.
According to data for the 2021–2022 academic year, a total of £54.3 million in taxes were paid by the working spouses of the students, who also paid a reported sum of £680,620,000 in school fees.
At home, Nigeria’s tertiary education sector struggles with issues like inadequate funding, a lack of research, and poor benefits for both academic and nonacademic staff.
Gbolahan Bolarin, a professor of mathematics at the Federal University of Technology in Minna, noted that the government must work harder to fund tertiary education in the nation in order to prevent the sector’s complete collapse.
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