Number of Nigerians studying in UK hits 8-year high

The number of Nigerians studying in the United Kingdom has risen to a high of 44,195 in the 2021/2022 academic year, the latest official data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) show.

According to the UK agency’s data, the number of students enrolment in higher education institutions increased by 107.4 percent in the 2021/2022 academic year from 21,305 in the previous year.

A breakdown of the HESA statistics show that in the top 10 international students list, Nigeria ranked third behind China (151,690) and India (126,535).

Other countries on the list are the United States (22,990), Hong Kong (17,630), Bangladesh (12,700), Malaysia (12,135), Saudi Arabia (8,750), United Arab Emirates (8,085) and Canada (7,485).

Experts say the growing interest of Nigerians the UK can be attributed to the country’s intellectual capacity and cheap human labour that the UK needs to grow and develop its economy.

“Nigerians have a good track record of being excellent in terms of their grades or results, and UK universities always get funding based on their grades,” Jennifer Oyelade, director at Transquisite Consulting, said.

She said the universities get funding based on how good their grades are. “So, the more Nigerian students come and make their universities look good, the more money they get.”

She added that it is a win-win situation for both countries as Nigerians get greener pastures through international education while the UK universities generate more funding from the government.

Adewale Adetona, co-founder at Menopays, said the UK has realised that a major way to further develop its economy “is to attract global talent, especially as the world is recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“The UK, just like other developed and future-looking countries like the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Canada and the US, has become a global talent magnet,” he added.

The UK, one of the world’s top economies, has become a global talent magnet by being a top choice of study for Nigerians.

An analysis of the overall Nigerian students’ enrolment data from the Institute of International Education, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Australian Government show that the 44,195 students compare with the 14,438 students in the US; 16,195 students in Canada; and 2,372 students in Australia.

“British independent schools, especially private boarding ones, view Nigeria as an increasingly attractive market. Most of them warmly welcome Nigerian students,” Matthew Page, a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in a recent article.

He said the schools overwhelmingly see these students as better-than-average performers and net contributors.

The UK’s withdrawal from European Union in 2020 created a lot of job vacancies at the middle and low levels in the economy. And the country’s acute shortage of labour due to its aging population and low birth rate made it challenging to fill the vacancies.

As a result of this, the country focused its attention on other countries with large youth demographics such as India, Brazil, and Nigeria. One of the measures it used to attract these countries was to update its International Education Strategy in 2021, which was originally launched in 2019.

The updated strategy reaffirms the government’s goals of increasing the value of its education exports to £35 billion ($48 billion) and to host at least 600,000 international students annually by 2030.

Some of the ways in which this growth is to be achieved is the Graduate route, which was launched in July 2021. The route allows eligible students to stay in the UK to work, or look for work, for two years (three years if studying at PhD level) after they have completed a degree in the UK. Others are high potential individual visas, global talent visas and scale-up visas.

Steve Smith, UK’s first-ever international education champion, said in the strategy update statement that he would work closely with overseas governments and officials to deepen government-to-government partnerships, help to open new international opportunities for the sector and work to resolve market access barriers in priority markets.

India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Nigeria, Brazil, Mexico, Pakistan, Europe, China, and Hong Kong are the markets spotlighted as priorities.

The minimum 600,000 target was achieved in 2021 as the total number of international students hit 605,130 and 679,970 in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

BusinessDay reported last month that the number of Nigerians granted sponsored study visas by the UK rose by 768.7 percent to 59,053 in 2022, the highest in four years, from 6,798 in 2019, according to the British government.

“Of the top five nationalities granted sponsored study visas, Bangladeshi nationals saw the largest percentage increase in grants, increasing from 1,745 to 15,277, closely followed by Nigerian nationals whose number increased from 6,798 to 59, 053,” it said.

Oyelade of Transquisite Consulting said Nigerians are more likely to get further support from employers through sponsorships because of the skills gap in major sectors like healthcare and education.

Before the British government updated the education strategy, the country saw its international student numbers grow relatively slowly as a result of more migration restrictive policies.

For Africa’s biggest economy, the number declined from 18,080 in the 2014/2015 academic year to 10,685 in 2017/2018 but it picked up to 10,810; 13,020; 21,305 and 44,195 in 2018/19, 2019/2020, 2020/21 and 2021/22 respectively.

A recent report by SBM Intelligence said Nigerian students and their dependents contributed an estimated sum of £1.93 billion to the UK in 2021.

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A breakdown of the total £1.93 billion shows that the students spent £680.6 million on school fees, followed by £408.4 million for rent, £151.3 million for national insurance, £54.4 million for tax of working spouse, £41.8 million for National Health Service (NHS) and £41.7 million for visa fees.

“Apart from school fees paid by Nigerian immigrants to British schools, the UK gains from visa fees, NHS payments, rent, economic productivity, income taxes (in the instances where the students work), etc.,” it said.

High poverty, unemployment, poor human capital development, insecurity and poor education are some of the major reasons many Nigerians are leaving the country in search of greener pastures.

And seeking higher education abroad has now become a major means of permanent emigration.

“An average Nigerian is more concerned about not coming back home than the academics itself, “Oludayo Sokunbi, chief executive officer at Japaconsults, said.

He said 90 percent of them are using academics as a way to ‘never return’ (japa) home or at least establish themselves overseas.

Funbi Matthew, a business management and human resource professional said the ongoing talent exodus popularly called ‘japa’ (a Yoruba word for “run quickly”) is affecting companies in Nigeria.

“Right now, businesses are losing talents that should help them improve. The government needs to start seeing the impact of this on businesses, and businesses need to know how to manage talents by knowing the factors that impact their talents from leaving,” she added.