Last year
UK and my country Nepal celebrated 200 years of Nepal-Britain relationship.
Despite the fact that my countrymen popularly known as Gurkhas have sacrificed
their lives, families and everything to fight for this country, they have been
badly treated. I feel at least proud when most of the British citizens I meet
admit that their leaders badly treated Gurkhas even after they fought for their
nation. Now, the similar, unfair treatment has began not only for the people of
Nepal, but for hundreds of thousands of international students who stayed here,
invested here for their study and now they have no choice even to work for
sometime and to hone their skills while earning some money back.
I got into
PhD to do research in brain tumours through University funded program at the
University of Wolverhampton. My university has invested a lot of money on me to
train me over three years including bench fees, tuition fees and monthly
stipends to make me a skilled scientist in biological sciences. Most research
students in my University are international students. We made it despite many
hindrances such as funding restrictions for international students. Now, when countries
like Australia, America and Canada open doors for the researchers, UK leaders
started closing doors for them. As an international student, it doesn’t really
matter to us which country we live in, we are anyway far from home, what matters
to us is a kind of treatments you provide to us.
As
international students have dropped down to 6%, there is no reason to wonder
why there are only 2-3 students in lecture theatre for a module. Is not it a
shame for a UK University to have 2-3 students in a big lecture room? There are
many modules with not even single student anyway for postgraduate level. If
this sort of treatments for international students continues, there is no
surprise if most of the postgraduate degrees in UK Universities become a
history.
We do have
restrictions everywhere in UK; restriction in jobs, funding for research,
scholarships, student loans, etc. What we could at least enjoy was free health
service through NHS that too most of us never used. Now, the level of
restriction has hone beyond a limit. There is now a kind of ban on everything.
It implies that UK doesn’t need any foreign students and immigrants.
In 21st
century, when a citizen of any country is like a global citizen, you are
barring skilled manpower not only entering your country, but also kicking out
some skilled ones already here or wanting to stay longer. My view is, it is not
just about immigrants and international students; it is about your perceptions or
mentality about the people from other countries. It is about what you think of
your universities who are totally crushed financially because there are no
foreign students. It is about your vision on your universities who have not
been able to take up enough students in the past 3-4 years due to impractical
and unfriendly regulations for international students. It is also about your
plan on your Universities who have not been able to open up any new research
positions due to lack of funding as there are no financial contributions from
foreign students for past three years. International students have suffered a
lot already when you revoked licence of many of your colleges and Universities
without even bothering to think of hundreds of thousands of those students who
returned home with an extreme pain and severe financial burdens without their
degree in hand. Now, if your policy towards international students continues,
it’s a time for you to suffer. I would suggest Theresa May and other UK leaders
to open their eyes before it is too late.
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