15,000 Nigerian Students Risk Deportation From UK …As London Reviews Varsity’s Study Visa Issuance Trust

Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Senator Magnus Abe chatting with Nigeria's Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at a function in Abuja, recently.

More than 2,600 foreign students face possible deportation
from Britain after their university was stripped of its right to authorise
visas.Nigeria has 15,000 students pursuing various courses in the United
Kingdom, who study under similar protocol.

London Metropolitan
University lost its “highly trusted status” because a survey found more than a
quarter of its foreign students did not have permission to be in the country,
Immigration Minister, Damian Green said yesterday.

A “significant proportion” of students did not have a good
standard of English, Green said, and there was no proof that half of those
sampled were turning up to lectures.

“Any one of those
breaches would be serious,” Green said in a BBC radio interview. “We found all
three of those breaches at London Metropolitan.

“ The students have 60 days to find a new sponsor, or they
could find themselves at risk of deportation.

However, Educators expressed fears that the episode could
damage Britain’s success in attracting foreign students.

Vice Chancellor of London Metropolitan University, Malcolm
Gillies,  said it was “working with the
best lawyers in the country” to challenge the ruling by the U.K. Border Agency.

“I would go so far as to say that UKBA has been rewriting
its own guidelines on this issue and this is something which should cause
concern to all universities in the U.K.,” Gillie said.

Universities Minister, David Willetts said a task force has
been set up to help genuine students who are affected through no fault of their
own.

“No matter how this is dressed up, the damaging message that
the U.K. deports foreign students studying at U.K. universities will reach all
corners of the globe,” said, General Secretary of the University and College
Union, Sally Hunt.

According to him, the
last thing we can afford to do is send a message that international students
are no longer welcome here. President of the National Union of Students, Liam
Burns said, the government’s “heavy-handed decision makes no sense for
students, no sense for institutions and no sense for the country.”

The Tide fears that should the policy be pursued as
threatened, the fate of many Nigerian students will ultimately hang in the
balance, as they also risk deportation.

The National Union of Students (NUS) contacted top UK
officials  to “express anger” over the
situation, and to point out the “potentially catastrophic effects on higher
education as a 12.5-billion pound per year export industry for the UK”.

NUS President Liam Burns also called the measures
“disgusting,” arguing that foreign students were “used as a political football
by politicians who seem either incapable of understanding, or are simply
uncaring about the impact of their decisions on individuals, universities and
the UK economy.”

The London Met claimed that the UKBA probe had left a “10
million pound black hole” in their budget.

However, a group of London Metropolitan University students
gathered outside Downing Street to express their distress and anger at the
UKBA’s decision to strip it of its right to admit foreigners.

Dozens of students and supporters sat in silence in front of
the gates to the Prime Minister’s residence before police moved them to the
other side of the street.

The students taped their mouths, carried signs which read
“International Students Not Welcome Here” and gave out leaflets which asked if
the UK is open for all.

The signs and leaflets expressed the students’ disappointment
with a design showing broken Olympic rings.

Forensic science student Emmanuel Egwu, from Abuja in
Nigeria, was told last night that he would not be able to do his third and
final year at the university.

The 24-year-old said he had paid £30,000 into his education
for a foundation course and two years at university.

“I have been paying loads of tuition fees, my parents have
been spending a lot of money, selling property back home to make sure my
tuition fees have been paid. It’s like flushing money down the toilet,” he
said.

Mr Egwu, who was hoping to do a Masters degree in the USA
and return to his country to work for the security services, said he now has 60
days to find another university place in the UK or leave the country.

He said: “I’m scared because how is that possible when
universities are resuming in two weeks’ time? “How are you going to get the
admission and make another application to UKBA?

In an interview with the Huffington Post, London Met student
Yemi, a Nigerian national, said, “I’m disappointed my plans went down the
drain. … I chose London Met over Middlesex and City, and it proved costly. As
early as February I had made plans for London Met and never in my wildest
imagination did I think this could happen.”

International students on sabbatical years will also be
affected by the UKBA’s decision.

Ayoola Onifade, who followed in his father’s footsteps to
come from Nigeria to study at London Metropolitan, is on a year off from
studying and planned to return for a postgraduate course there.

The 27-year-old biomedical science student, who is the
current president of the university’s student union, said: “This sends a
message across to me that UKBA and the UK as a whole punishes the just because
of the unjust.”

“They (UKBA) have made a decision which tarnishes the image
of higher education in the United Kingdom,” he added.