The tide of Nigerian students desiring to attend university in the United Kingdom (UK) fell by 65 percent between 2014 and 2015, and fluctuated in 2016-17, as Nigerian students move to the United States of America and Canada.
Growth in the number of students going to study in the UK from overseas came to a near halt during the last academic year, as fewer people arrived from India, Nigeria and several other non-European Union (EU) countries, according to figures recently published.
Meanwhile, Nigeria retained its top ranking as the number one source of African students studying in the US, according to the 2017 Open Doors Report released, November 13, 2017.
Nigerians are enrolled in more than 1,000 institutions in 51 US states and territories. 18 percent of Nigeria’s students in the US are studying in Texas. Other states with a large number of Nigerian students include New York, Florida, Massachusetts and Maryland.
The data showed that the number of students from India and Nigeria studying in the UK in 2016-17 fell by 1 percent and 21 percent, respectively, compared with 2015-16.
Those from Saudi Arabia and Malaysia both dropped 6 percent. Students from many non-EU countries used to have an automatic right to work in the UK for two years after completing their studies, but that arrangement has been substantially curtailed since 2012.
Federick Obasi, CEO of StudySearch, attributed the ebbing tide of interest in the UK programme to unfavourable (UK) government policy and economic factors, adding, “the UK is probably one of the most expensive places to study in the world.
“The overwhelming evidence that we received led us to conclude that changes to immigration rules in this country have played a direct part in putting overseas students off from choosing the UK.
“The rules are seen as too complex and subject to endless changes, the visa costs are not competitive, and the rules relating to work after study are so limiting that prospective students are heading to the US, Australia, Canada and elsewhere.”
The overall number of overseas students coming to the UK to study rose by just under 1 percent to 442,755 in the 2016-17 academic year compared with 2015-16, according to the Higher Education Statistics Authority.
The overall number of students in all forms of education in the UK rose 2 percent in 2016-17 compared with 2015-16.
The decline in the number of people coming from some countries outside the EU bloc has been blamed by higher education leaders on increasingly stringent British visa rules, at a time when other nations are seeking to woo more international students.
In 2014, Lords Committee urged the UK government to rethink immigration policy on international Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students.
“We are calling on the government to overhaul its immigration policies,” explained Lord Krebs, chair (UK) House of Lords Committee on Science and Technology.
Of the 30,000 enquiries StudySearch received from students around the world, in 2014, 79 percent came from Nigeria. Enquiries from predominantly Ghana, Kenya and South Africa accounted for a further 8 percent from other African countries.
The number of enquiries from Nigerian students interested in studying in the UK was 15,992 in 2014. This number however dropped to 5,610 for the same period the subsequent year, representing a 35percent decline.
The limited growth reflected how there was a 7 percent increase in first-year students from EU member states. The number of non-EU students in the UK during 2016-17 fell by just under 1 percent.
The figures relate to the first full academic year after the June 2016 Brexit referendum, but most students would have applied for their courses before the result of the vote to leave the EU was known.
The data come the day after the Higher Education Policy Institute, a think-tank, published research showing that each year’s intake of overseas students produces a net £20.3 billion in benefits for the UK. Higher education leaders say the sector faces substantial handicaps because Britain unusually compared with other nations and counts overseas students as part of wider migration statistics.
They believe that has helped to encourage the imposition of tougher visa rules on international students.
Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said the latest statistics demonstrated the effect of the government’s negative tone on international students.
“It’s very difficult for the British higher education sector to really sell themselves across the rest of the world when the British government is emitting a more negative signal,” he said.
It was particularly challenging, said Mr Hillman, for the UK to compete given that competitors such as Canada and Australia were “rolling out the red carpet” for international students.
British universities face a fight to stay at the top A flawed basis for UK curbs on foreign students In Australia, the number of overseas students rose 13 per cent in October — the most recent month for which data are available — compared with the same time in 2016.
The number of EU students coming to the UK has risen sharply since 2015-16 following the government’s lifting of a cap on the overall number of people in higher education. EU students were included in the cap because the UK government is obliged to offer them loans and other benefits on the same basis as their domestic counterparts.
There has been broader growth in the number of overseas students in Britain in recent years, reflecting rapid expansion of what is a global market.
