Nigerian Students in the UK Could Be Deported After Studies

Nigerians and other immigrant students could be deported immediately after completing their studies. This development comes as the latest in a long-standing row concerning international students in the United Kingdom.

Reports say the UK Home Secretary, Suella Braverman and the Department of Education are on different sides over the issue of post-study visas for international applicants.

Students travelling to the UK can stay on for two years after completing their courses, but the UK home secretary wants to cut that duration to six months.  The cut is part of Braverman’s plan to cut immigration and reduce the number of unskilled foreign workers coming to Britain.

Braverman’s new policy

Braverman wants to slash down the number of unskilled foreign workers coming to Britain from 239,000 to the “tens of thousands.” She also wants to cut down on the number of international students who can apply for a graduate post-study work visa. This will reduce the number of students who can work because a post-study work visa allows students who passed their degree to remain and work in the UK for a minimum of two years.

Braverman expects international students to have a skilled job after 6 months. The skilled job will make them eligible for a work visa. If they don’t get a skilled job within the duration, they would be deported from the UK.

Department of Education and International students

The department of education is resisting Braverman’s plan to cut that to just six months. This is because education officials are afraid that the cut will make the UK less attractive to foreign students. These officials understand that their major source of income will be affected as foreign students pay far more than UK students for their courses.

Why do Nigerian students choose the UK?

In recent times, applicants from Nigeria majorly pick the UK as their first country of choice for international education. This can be largely attributed to the instability of academic calendars caused by incessant strikes. Other factors include the poor state of academic facilities and the poor standard of teaching in Nigerian academic institutions.

Last week, figures released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency showed that there were almost 680,000 foreign students in the 2021-22 academic year. A breakdown of the figures showed that students from non-EU outnumbered EU students by almost five-fold. 

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