London Dreams

Published in "Republica" leading national daily in Nepal on Monday, 6th February 2012

I visited some consultancies in Nepal about two years ago when I was preparing to apply for higher studies in the universities abroad. I recall with surprise that most of them had suggested going to London and enrolling in colleges rather than in the universities. Since I had already had my Master’s degree, they argued, there was no point in spending my hard-earned money in taking another degree from the UK.

When I insisted for university, I realized they didn’t have any universities to refer me to. Yet another surprise: Some of the good consultancies had it that person of my academic level shouldn’t opt for TIER4 student visa in the UK, and that Canada would be an ideal study destination for me.

However, I opted for the UK and made my way here. I do not want to dwell on what I did or how I spent my two years in the UK. I want to explore the facts and fictions of Nepali students here in this write-up. Before I came here for study, I had heard of Nepali media warning the UK-bound youths about the risks for TIER4 students.

As it turned out, Nepali media had rightly issued cautions. I found that many students were jobless and their colleges had been black-listed forcing them to return home with their ambitions clipped and their dreams shattered, not to mention the huge monetary loss they had to incur.Only last year, few dozens of Nepali and other Asian students—especially from Pakistan and India—were deported to their respective countries as they were found working illegally in onion and mushroom farms. The deported students would work for much below National Minimum Wage (NMW) and also worked more than 20 hours a week, something not allowed for international students. There are still many Nepali students working in onion farms and mushroom farms, not yet caught by the authorities, luckily.

It may sound strange, but I have met a number of Nepali students whose colleges were black-listed. But they do not seem bothered for the fact that they are working part time in more than two jobs. Rather they are happy. In Nepal, they say, they would have saved hardly any money, but here they are making few bucks at least.

Worse still, some of the students I met have no idea how to prepare a CV for jobs nor can they really communicate in English. They got into “colleges” because they got their IELTS requirement waived somehow.

On the other hand, a great many Nepali students are also doing very well. Those who came with dependents are reaping good advantages, as the dependent can work more than full time hours. The students who entered the UK in September 2009, have already spent two years and are working as post-study workers now.

As both the main applicant and dependent are working, they have made good savings and are planning to move to another country for further education—the UK is going tougher with new students of late. This means that those of such students came here solely for higher education and they could get well paying jobs because they were well aware about working environment.

The lesson: It is imperative for Nepali students aspiring for abroad studies to research well before blindly trusting the mushrooming consultancies in Nepal. As we are aware, our government is doing almost nothing to regulate educational consultancies. So the onus of responsibility lies in us. If right steps are taken, life as an international student in western countries can be rewarding and joyous to a great extent.