Dr. Richard Montgomery, the British High
Commissioner to Nigeria made this known in an interview with the Newsmen on
Sunday, May 5, in Abuja.
He said that, the educational system policy
changed earlier this year for international students in higher education not to
bring dependents into the UK so as to curb the increase of foreign student
bringing in dependents.
He explained that the huge surge in
dependence was putting an unsustainable pressure on many universities.
Montgomery added that before his posting as High Commissioner to Nigeria, he
had spoken to some of these universities on the policy change.
He noted that the universities Chancellors
had complained of the huge student populations’ highlighting that accommodation
was a huge challenge, access to medical services under the National Health
Service and access to school if they brought in dependents.
According to him, the restrictions do not
apply to all categories, adding that those doing a long term research degree,
like a PhD, or doctorate were not affected.
“Those coming to the UK for doctorate can still bring their dependents but if
you are coming to the UK with a study visa for an undergraduate degree, or
short term master’s degree am afraid the rules have been changed.
“People need to understand why this change
was brought in, and it is a sensible change because we have a large higher
education sector and most of these universities are in towns across the
country.
“There has been a surge recently, in demand
for British education and I can give you the macro figures and there has also
been a huge increase in foreign students bringing their dependants.
“In the case of Nigeria, in 2019, before the Coronavirus pandemic, there were
only one and a half thousand dependents being brought in from Nigeria, with
those on study visas,
“In 2022, that figure had increased to fifty
two thousand dependants so that’s a thirty fold increase in dependence. And
it’s not just about Nigeria by the way.
“It is also about all foreign students, we
saw similar rises, for example amongst Indian students coming to study in the
UK,” he added.
Speaking on the policy initiation it is
early to ascertain the impact of the policy on undergraduates because these
changes were announced in 2023, but came into effect early this year and we
would have to wait until September 2024, before we get the next run of academic
tickets, he said.
“I think what your wider audience needs to
hear is that the demand for UK education is really strong, in
2022, 65,000 study visas was approved to Nigerian applicants, 65,000, while in
September 2023 we received about 115,000 Study visa applications
from Nigeria.
“Of which 95 per cent were approved and over 110,000 study visas were
issued last September compared to 65,000 of the previous year, there’s almost a
doubling of Nigerian study visas in 2023 which means the demand is really high.
” And it is something which I am genuinely
pleased and proud about that the UK has such a good higher educational sector
and we are still at the six economy, and is still one of the biggest economies
but we are only 2.5 per cent of the global economy.
“So we have 17 of the top 100 universities
in the world. We have 17 per cent of the top universities, so it is one of our
units.
“I really like the demand but there are
other factors at play in terms of schooling in the UK , the value of the Naira
in the coming months will also determine how easy or hard it will be for many
people to afford our education.
“But I really hope that the number of
people who bring dependants in UK may actually not be a majority, but a
minority of people have tried to study in the UK so am hoping that the demand
will be sustained.
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