It is officially official; a private ‘truth’ that has been well known amongst many students within our community (both through bitter experience and word of mouth) has now been made public: International Students are not welcome to the UK. You would think that the events that have taken place over the last 2 months in the UK were scripted from a drama set or documentary but are international students welcome to study in the UK? – ‘no be so’ as the pidgin saying goes.
The desire for the UK to purge itself from and of International Students is so intent that even government policy and data stats are ‘magically’ agreeing with this argument in sudden contradiction against stats from trusted UK institutions. This means there is continuing evidence & data thats suggests international student policy was not and is not based on evidence or facts.
Home Office figures show just 40,000 non-EU nationals who came to the UK on student visas still have leave to remain five years later. This is in contrast to Theresa May and the government who argue around 90,000 – do not leave the UK at the end of their studies, a claim made on the basis of data from the International Passenger Survey. Dominic Scott, chief executive of the UK Council for International Student Affairs, told The PIE News that the “vast majority [of international students] clearly go home after their studies and make absolutely no impact on net migration figures.” Furthermore, The number of international students coming to the UK has fallen over the past six years and the number enrolling in UK higher education has stagnated.
“This approach is based on dubious evidence. Other data sources suggest that the government could be relying on an overestimate of the number of students who stay on in the UK after completing their studies – one that overshoots by many tens of thousands. This means that government policy could be focused on driving out tens of thousands of people who may no longer be in the UK. The estimate the government uses is not reliable enough to guide policy.”
Source: Morris, Murray & Murphy (Sep 2016)
Furthermore, it is also no surprise why excellent solution-orientated groups fighting for the rights of international students to complete their degrees are being shut down and shut out of practically all UK universities as these institutions do not in any way shape or form want external organisations to investigate the way how they treat international students – EDUCATING BEYOND BORDERS leading the way. No support, no media access and few within the British public are interested about the plight of Foreign Students in the UK. For those that do not know – there is a nation-wide epidemic of international students who do not complete their UK degrees despite spending tens of thousands of pounds and entering the UK legally; more about this can be found here: Dilemmas International Students Face in the UK 2016.
The suspicion among lawyers advocating for UK based international students has been growing. Legal professionals, organisations and devoted journalist arguing that the government portray factually nuanced and correct data against international students has been in demand for more than five years. In late 2014, the Home Office (after a Panorama documentary that portrayed a well-established fraud operation operating with immigration consultants and one UK college) had found an “excuse to hammer down the immigration numbers, picking on overwhelmingly young students and freshly-arrived workers. Many of the people being sent home have excellent English. They have degrees from decent universities. They have jobs where they speak English every day” (Ian Dunt 2015)
With many universities refusing to provide the necessary internships for International Students to complete their degrees, losing licenses during student studies forcing them back home without compensation and deliberate attempts from policy makers and the UK government to showcase stats designed to improve the notion that law abiding high-fee paying international students population need monitoring and purging; it is fair to say: “Foreign Students are not welcome in the UK” – but we’ve heard that before.
“What the government doesn’t realise is that it won’t attract “the brightest and the best” if it continues to project an image of not welcoming international students … and when it can’t even appear to get its own statistics right, surely we could do with some international bright minds.”
Here are five common questions International Students face when studying in the UK:
1) If a College or University loses it’s border license during my studies; am I forced to leave halfway during my course and am I re-inbursed the thousands of pounds i’ve paid?
2) Why are fee paying international students being forced to find jobs to finish the very expensive studies they have paid for?
3) What happens when the Home Office makes an adverse decision which prevents me from completing my studies?
4) Why do many universities fail to deliver the compulsory #internships UK International Students need to finish the very expensive courses they pay hundreds of thousands for?
5) If UK universities receive hundreds of thousands of pounds from International students; why do the many students feel these universities won’t do all they can to ensure that they finish?
If you are or know any international students in the UK who are struggling due to some of the above questions; please do get in touch with us via email at: africancultureblog@gmail.com for assistance and visit Educating Beyond Borders.
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The suspicion among lawyers advocating for UK based international students has been growing. Legal professionals, organisations and devoted journalist arguing that the government portray factually nuanced and correct data against international students has been in demand for more than five years. In late 2014, the Home Office (after a Panorama documentary that portrayed a well-established fraud operation operating with immigration consultants and one UK college) had found an “excuse to hammer down the immigration numbers, picking on overwhelmingly young students and freshly-arrived workers. Many of the people being sent home have excellent English. They have degrees from decent universities. They have jobs where they speak English every day” (Ian Dunt 2015).