Nigerian students and their counterparts of other nationalities who have chosen the United Kingdom (UK) as their preferred study destination are in for better times following the current visa rule review by the UK.
The British Home Office Wednesday announced a two-year post-study work visa for international students, reversing a 2012 decision made by the then Home Secretary Theresa May that barred overseas students from staying beyond four months after completing a degree.
Consequently, international students studying in UK universities will now be allowed to stay for two years after graduation to find jobs, a move that could be the game changer for Nigerian students seeking long-term overseas employment after study.
The new visa rule, which is expected to come into force new year, will apply to international students in the UK who start courses at undergraduate level or above, and to trusted institutions with a track record of upholding immigration checks, the Home Office said in a statement.
While this is a good development for potential Nigerian students willing to make informed overseas study decisions, a look at the cheapest universities in the country based on data from the Reddin Survey of University Tuition Fees 2018/19 conducted by The Complete University Guide gave a deeper insight into UK universities for those with a budget and looking for more affordable options.
According to the data, Coventry University led the pack of UK universities with relatively cheap tuition fees. The university has fees as low as £9,000 and as high as £12,600 for international undergraduates. This is in contrast with UK’s highest-ranked university, the University of Oxford, which has international undergraduate fees starting at £24,750 a year.
Some other UK universities considered to be relatively affordable include Royal Agricultural University with annual international tuition fees of £10,000; University of Suffolk, £10,080; University of Cumbria and University of Sunderland, £10,500; University of the West of Scotland, £10,600; Ravensbourne University London, £10,800-13,500; and Buckinghamshire New University, Plymouth Marjon University, and University of Wales Trinity Saint David with international tuition fees of £11,000 each year.
These fees are apparently high especially for many in a country like Nigeria which is now the poverty capital of the world, also coupled with the high exchange rate which puts naira equivalence of the tuition fees between N4.2 million and N5.2 million per year. However, there are some scholarships and similar funding opportunities available for potential international UK students from emerging countries like Nigeria.
BusinessDay findings show available government-funded UK scholarships for international students include British Chevening Scholarships which provide full or part funding for full-time graduate programs in any subject, Commonwealth Scholarships for Developing Commonwealth Countries for students from developing countries in the Commonwealth for studies at master’s and PhD level, and Commonwealth Shared Scholarship Scheme at UK Universities for students undertaking taught master’s programs in the UK.
Apart from the obvious opportunities for Nigerian students in the UK, checks by BusinessDay revealed that the non-governmental UK scholarships for international students come with mouth-watering packages.
Top on the list include Euraxess UK, an initiative of the European Commission providing support for researchers in Europe, CastleSmart Scholarship offering £6,000 annually for an undergraduate student in the UK, The Royal Society Grants, and Aga Khan Foundation Scholarship Programme available for African students.
Prior to the new student visa rule, international students in the UK were allowed to stay for a maximum of four months after graduation. According to checks by BusinessDay the Theresa May’s student visa rule was one of the reasons why the UK was less attractive for Nigerians.
A recent data by Studying-in-UK.org, a leading information portal about UK higher education system, showed that there has been steady decline in the enrolment rate of Nigerian students in UK universities in the past three years.
According to the latest report, 10,540 Nigerian students were enrolled in UK universities in the 2017/18 academic year; this is a decline of 39 percent when compared to the 17,390 reported in the 2012/2013 academic session.
“Due to the stories we heard from our friends, my family picked Canada over the UK for my siblings to go do their masters,” Arua Nnamdi told BusinessDay by phone, adding that “my parents didn’t see the need of sending my siblings to the UK to study if they were going to come back without recouping some of the money spent.”
Segun Ajibola, a professor and the President/Chairman of Council, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, attributed the drop in enrolment rate on the economic downturn which saw a drastic fall of the naira against the dollar and the GBP.
In his remark, Ajibola, who is also the Dean, College of Postgraduate Studies, Caleb University, maintained that the situation had been made worse because parents sending their children to study in the UK have not witnessed an increase in income.
“Their capability to sponsor their children overseas has reduced significantly because of the foreign exchange rate,” Ajibola said.
Despite the huge cost of funding education in the UK, Nigerians’ appetite for education tourism comes from the high standard of education, job opportunities, and the search for greener pastures. The increase in the number of students travelling abroad had initially been attributed to only the fact that Nigerian universities were in a parlous state.
For many stakeholders, the development could be attributed to the decay in the country’s educational sector and the incessant strikes which had disrupted schools’ calendar. Lack of admission space: Every year about 1.5 million school leavers sit for compulsory entrance examinations into 150 public and private universities whose approved carrying capacity is 600,000 students, as compiled from the World University News.
Furthermore, BusinessDay took a look at top UK universities for graduate employment for potential or current students willing to take a full advantage of the UK’s new visa rule to kick off their careers. It was discovered that 52 British universities featured among the world’s top 500 in QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2019.
University of Cambridge was considered the first UK university for graduate employability this year and the seventh globally. The university was followed closely by University of Oxford, while University College London occupied the third place.
Imperial College London was the fourth in the ranking, displacing the University of Manchester, the University of Bristol and London School of Economics and Political Science which occupied the fifth, sixth and the seventh positions, respectively.
Also among the top 10 UK universities for graduate employability this year are the University of Leeds, University of Edinburgh and King’s College London.
ENDURANCE OKAFOR & OLUWASEGUN OLAKOYENIKAN
