Addressed to
Professor Karen Bryan, Vice Chancellor, York St John University
Dr Rob Hickey, Chief Operating Officer, York St John University
Professor Richard Bourne, Pro Vice Chancellor Education, York St John University
Professor Robert Mortimer, Pro Vice Chancellor: Research and International, York St John University
Background
Dipesh Ramtel is a migrant undergraduate student from Nepal who was studying Business Administration at York St John University. He was detained on an immigration raid in October at the restaurant where he was working part-time. Dipesh had mistakenly worked a little over the 20-hour limit allowed for student visa holders. Since May, Dipesh’s father has not been able to send the monthly £400 intended for his maintenance. With a significant dip in his finances, Dipesh supported himself through part-time restaurant work. Migrant students from low-income countries, like Nepal, with a GDP per capita of $1,447.31 USD, experience the UK’s cost-of-living crisis more violently. Under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, student visa holders like Dipesh are excluded from benefits and housing. This means that migrant students like Dipesh have no safety net should they face financial problems while living in the UK.
After Dipesh was detained, he spent three days in prison before being transferred to Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre (IRC), the largest immigration detention centre in all of Europe. After informing his family of his detention, Dipesh’s family encouraged him to return home. Dipesh informed the detention personnel and York St John University of his decision to return to Nepal. The head of immigration compliance at York St John University sent Dipesh an email while in detention, indicating that he had been withdrawn from his course following detention. The email also indicated that Dipesh could request a refund of his autumn semester’s tuition fees, stating,
“I have also attached a refund form for your completion and return, should you wish to request a refund. Your request will be assessed and you will be informed by our Finance Team @student-transactions, if you are due for any refund.”
Dipesh was removed from the UK on 17 November. On 21 November, Dipesh was sent an email by York St John University’s International Development Manager stating that the university would no longer refund his autumn semester tuition fees, totalling £5,750:
“The denial is based on a confirmed breach of your Student Visa conditions. Our records show you worked beyond the permissible 20 hours per week limit, a mandatory and non-negotiable requirement of your visa. Compliance with the working hour restrictions is essential for maintaining enrolment status and eligibility for any institutional refund.”
Dipesh is being double-punished- both by the UK’s carceral immigration policy and by York St John University, who are keeping the tuition fees that could help support him and his family.
Dipesh in his own words
“I was shocked and frustrated when I learn that York St John University is now refusing to refund my tuition fees for the autumn term. I trusted the university when they told me earlier that the fees would be refunded if I couldn’t continue my studies because of the situation. Now it feels that they’ve broken that promise and are avoiding me whenever I try to contact them.
Without that refund, my family and I are facing serious financial problems. We used a huge amount of our savings to pay those fees, and now that I am back in Nepal, I need that money to continue my education in my country. Without it, I may not be able to study at all. The university’s decision is stopping me from moving forward with my life, and it’s putting a lot of pressure on my family, who are already struggling after everything that happened.
Extractivism by York St John University in Nepal
York St John University, formerly the College of Ripon and York St John, became a university in 2006 and expanded to awarding doctoral degrees in 2015. The creation of York St John University in the 2000s was when Labour under the Blair and later Brown governments saw the establishment of thousands of full-time and part-time university places. With the introduction of tuition fees for Home students, Labour also sought to increase migrant student numbers because they pay higher tuition fees that subsidise Home student tuition fees and help to fund marketised UK higher education. However, the UK university market-driven policy created an extractivist education model that they practice along with the Hostile Environment policy, the Prevent Duty, genocide, war, and ecological violence, which reproduces colonialism, carcerality, and capitalistic violence. The continual mistreatment of migrant students like Dipesh is a canary in a coal mine, warning of the continued violence that market-driven higher education has produced.
Nepal has figured prominently as part of York St John University’s internationalising agenda in acquiring new markets of migrant students to fill management’s coffers. Lei Wang, International Development Manager for York St John University, wrote on his LinkedIn profile in the aftermath of Nepal’s Gen Z protests in September,
“We recognise the resilience and strength of the Nepalese community, and we stand alongside you. To our current and prospective students: please know that your safety and wellbeing are our highest priority. We also deeply value the trust and commitment of your families and friends who support you on your educational journey.
York St. John University remains committed to nurturing our strong and growing partnership with Nepal, and to ensuring that students have the support they need—whether here in the UK or in their home country.”
The post was endorsed by Sunil Tuladhar, Country Coordinator for Nepal – York St. John University, along with Dibya Maharjan, Manager at Real Dreams Consultancy. Real Dreams Consultancy is an educational agency in Nepal that guides prospective students on their application and visa process for studying in the UK. On their website, Real Dreams Consultancy explains that York St John University is “The cheapest UK university for Nepalese students.” One must ask why York St John University’s recruitment presents intentionally misleading marketing of studying at York St John University that neglects to mention UK’s cost-of-living crisis, while factoring in the economic violence inside Nepal, in addition to more stringent UK border controls for Nepalese youth who are dealing with the tremors of political upheaval, coupled with a high unemployment rate. How does York St John University’s treatment of Dipesh Ramtel support their commitment to “ensuring that [Nepalese] students have the support they need- whether here or in the UK or in their home country?”
Dipesh’s case underscores the continued colonality of UK universities that treat migrant students as expendable for their tuition fees while subjecting them to border violence.
Demands
We, the undersigned, demand that York St John University:
1. Immediately refund Dipesh Ramtel his autumn 2025 term tuition fee, totalling £5,750.
2. To make a public apology for contributing to worsening mental and physical health by attempting to steal and financially disadvantage Dipesh and his family in the most vile manner, as they recover from his immigration detention and his family losing their savings that were used to pay tuition fees to York St John University.
3. To stop hoarding the tuition fees of migrant students who find themselves in immigration detention for merely trying to survive economic exploitation at the hands of your university and border violence.
4. Stop misleading and harmful advertisements to migrant students, particularly from low-income countries, that do not reflect the situation on the ground in relation to the UK’s inflation rate, the Hostile Environment policy, and the changing landscape of immigration.
5. To end punitive border controls on campus via the Hostile Environment policy.
DEADLINE TO SIGN BY: 11PM, FRIDAY 30 JANUARY 2026
List of signatories will be updated every Wednesday.
Click to sign the letter here.