Nigerians and other immigrant students in the UK currently face a high risk of deportation after completing their studies following a dispute between UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman and the Department for Education.
According to The Daily Mail, Braverman is currently looking to reduce the amount of time overseas students can stay in the UK after graduation.
the punch reports that currently, immigrants who travel to Britain to study can stay for two years after graduation.
But the Department for Education is said to be resisting Braverman’s plan to reduce it to just six months, after which they must have a skilled job that makes them eligible for a work visa or to leave the UK.
The Daily Mail further stated that the development is the latest twist in a long-running row over the number of foreign students.
“Braverman has pledged to cut immigration and ‘substantially reduce’ the number of unskilled foreign workers arriving in Britain, from 239,000 to ‘tens of thousands’.
“As part of that, he wants to reduce the number of international students who can apply for a post-graduate work visa, allowing any student who has passed their degree to stay and work in the UK for at least two years. .
“But education officials fear this will make the UK less attractive to overseas students, who pay far more than UK students for their courses and are a major source of revenue for universities,” the house said. media.
the punch reports that the UK is one of the top destinations for Nigerian students looking to study abroad.
Recent data released by the UK Home Office revealed that the number of study visas granted to Nigerians increased by 222.8%, with 65,929 issued from June 2022 up from 20,427 in the same period of 2021. .
Similarly, Nigerian students and their dependents in the UK are said to have contributed an estimated £1.9bn to the UK economy, according to an analysis by SBM Intelligence.
Data covering the 2021/2022 academic session estimated that a sum of £680,620,000 was paid as school fees with a total of £54.3 million paid in tax by the working spouses of students.
At home, Nigeria’s tertiary education sector faces challenges ranging from underfunding, a dearth of research, and low well-being of academic and non-academic staff.
A professor of Mathematics at the Federal Technological University of Minna, Gbolahan Bolarin, pointed out that the government must devote more efforts to financing tertiary education in the country to avoid a total collapse of the sector.
the punch reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria has released more than $680 million for foreign education in the first nine months of 2022 alone.
