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immigration compliance at York St John University sent Dipesh an email while in detention, indicating that he had been withdrawn from his course following detention.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.
On 21 October, it was reported that Kosovo has offered to become the first Western Balkan country to accept refugees who have been refused asylum as part of the UK government’s plan to create return hubs in a third country. Albin Kurti, Prime Minister of Kosovo, indicated that in return for accepting the UK’s refused asylum seekers, he seeks from the UK government “support in security – be that through strategic agreements or through equipment and projects we might do.” Between 1998-1999, Kosovo Albanians were subjected to ethnic cleansing by Serbs during the breakup of Yugoslavia. The US and UK provided covert military assistance to the Kosovo Liberation Army in the lead-up to the 1999 NATO bombing campaigns. Unsurprisingly, before declaring independence from Serbia in 2008, Kosovo began to position itself as a bastion of Euro-Atlantic security interests in the Western Balkans during the early War on Terror years. While such geopolitical alignments with Euro-Atlantic policies may appear at first sight as a matter of political choice, they should be understood within the complex context of Kosovo’s precarious status in the international arena: one that compels the country to align with the United States and the European Union, upon which it remains heavily reliant for its security and international legitimacy.
In 2005, it was reported inDerSpiegelthat Kosovo allowed for a CIA black site prison inside the U.S. Army base, Camp Bondsteel, where detained men were held for months without a trial in deplorable conditions similar to those found at the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Another aspect of Kosovo’s strengthening ties with the Euro-Atlantic security order can be seen in its close relations with Israel, brokered by the US in 2021, when Kosovo opened an embassy in Jerusalem. Both Kosovo and Israel have cooperated in counter-terrorism work, which includes Israel providing training to Kosovo law enforcement.
Earlier this year, Kosovo signed an agreement with Denmark to send 300 non-European national prisoners to serve the rest of their sentences at Gjilan prison. In exchange for accepting non-European prisoners, the Danish government will give Kosovo a yearly amount of €15 million, with €5 million used to bring Gjilan prison up to Danish standards. We must bring up Kosovo’s history interlinked with the Euro-Atlantic security order, because the Kosovo government is actively encouraging the expansion of the prison and border regime inside its country in exchange for money, security, and arms, all of which will be used to harm migrants, along with their own citizens. As Piro Rexhepi reminds us in White Enclosures: Racial Capitalism and Coloniality along the Balkan Route (2023), the coloniality of EU relations in the Western Balkans, where EU integration, economic, and security partnerships are conditional, provided that countries along the Balkan immigration route become the dumping ground for Europe’s, and now the UK’s, migrant problem.
The UK’s failed Rwanda Plan of two years ago has not dissuaded politicians from either side of the parliament from finding another pathway towards outsourcing its violent borders. Instead of de-escalating the anti-migrant, anti-Muslim pogrom in August 2024 that began in Southport and later engulfed the entire UK, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is actively both inflaming and normalising anti-migrant rhetoric. This was seen in May, when Starmer said the UK is “becoming an island of strangers,” paraphrasing similar rhetoric from another infamous racist-xenophobic British politician, Enoch Powell. The summer of 2025 has been equally vicious for UK asylum seeker and migrant communities, with an anti-migrant, anti-Roma pogrom that happened in June in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, followed by a series of anti-migrant protests at the Bell Hotel in Epping and other sites in England.
Starmer’s policies are contributing to the growing far-right rhetoric against migrants, while also fascist Reform Party is dominating polls, emboldening and normalising fascism in the UK. Meanwhile, as the right-wing British media parade the view that asylum seekers have nefarious, criminal, and sexually deviant intentions while in the UK- views that are driving normalised xeno-racism, there is little outcry that 50 lone child asylum seekers have vanished while in state care. A significant number of asylum seeker children who have disappeared while in care are Albanian. The border violence via the UK’s 13-year Hostile Environment policy against migrants affects all racialised populations and also particularly Albanians and Kosovans, who, either as asylum seekers or undocumented, find themselves routinely detained and deported in secret deportation flights without the ability to contest their deportation.
As abolitionists working to dismantle carceral borders and the colonial dynamics that underpin such systems of oppression, we recognise that the struggle to end outsourced detention in Kosovo and the extension of UK borders starts with cooperation between Kosovo and UK activists, and beyond. A transnational, united, and focused campaign to stop outsourced detention in Kosovo is what we, the undersigned, will endeavour to establish to stop the UK and the EU from treating in a typically colonial manner developing regions of Europe. We seek to affirm migrant liberation and stop the genocidal policies against migrants, which, in turn, forces them to make more precarious and deadly decisions as a result of the growing carceral border policies enacted.
Translation in Albanian
Më 21 tetor, u raportua në media se Kosova ka pranuar të bëhet vendi i parë i Ballkanit Perëndimor që pranon refugjatë të cilëve iu është refuzuar azili, si pjesë e planit të qeverisë së Mbretërisë së Bashkuar për të krijuar qendra rikthimi në një vend të tretë. Albin Kurti, Kryeministri i Kosovës, tregoi se në këmbim të pranimit të azilkërkuesve të refuzuar të Mbretërisë së Bashkuar, ai kërkon nga qeveria e Mbretërisë së Bashkuar “mbështetje në siguri – qoftë përmes marrëveshjeve strategjike apo përmes pajisjeve dhe projekteve që mund të bëjmë”. Midis viteve 1998-1999, shqiptarët e Kosovës iu nënshtruan spastrimit etnik nga regjimi serb gjatë shpërbërjes së Jugosllavisë. SHBA-të dhe Mbretëria e Bashkuar ofruan ndihmë të fshehtë ushtarake për Ushtrinë Çlirimtare të Kosovës në prag të fushatave të bombardimeve të NATO-s në vitin 1999. Siç pritej, para se të shpallte pavarësinë nga Serbia në vitin 2008, Kosova nisi të pozicionohej si një bastion i interesave të sigurisë euroatlantike në Ballkanin Perëndimor gjatë viteve të hershme të Luftës kundër Terrorizmit. Ndërsa rreshtime të tilla gjeopolitike me klubin euroatlantik mund të duken në pamje të parë si një zgjedhje politike, ato duhet të kuptohen brenda kontekstit kompleks të statusit të pasigurt të Kosovës në arenën ndërkombëtare: një kontekst që e shtyn vendin të rreshtohet me Shtetet e Bashkuara dhe Bashkimin Evropian, tek të cilët mbetet shumë i varur për sigurinë dhe legjitimitetin e tij ndërkombëtar.
Në vitin 2005, Der Spiegel publikoi se Kosova lejoi ndërtimin e një burgu të fshehtë të CIA-s brenda bazës së ushtrisë amerikane, Kampi Bon in dsteel, ku burrat e burgosur u mbajtën për muaj të tërë pa gjyq në kushte të mjerueshme të ngjashme me ato në kampin famëkeq të paraburgimit në Gjirin e Guantanamos. Një aspekt tjetër i forcimit të lidhjeve të Kosovës me rendin e sigurisë euroatlantike mund të shihet në marrëdhëniet e saj të ngushta me Izraelin, të ndërmjetësuara nga SHBA-të në vitin 2021, kur Kosova hapi një ambasadë në Jerusalem. Si Kosova ashtu edhe Izraeli kanë bashkëpunuar në “Luftën kundër Terrorizmit”, e cila përfshin ofrimin e trajnimeve nga Izraeli për zbatimin e ligjit në Kosovë.
Në fillim të vitit, Kosova nënshkroi një marrëveshje me Danimarkën për të dërguar 300 të burgosur jo-evropianë për të vuajtur pjesën tjetër të dënimit në burgun e Gjilanit. Në këmbim të pranimit të të burgosurve jo-evropianë, qeveria daneze do t’i japë Kosovës një shumë vjetore prej 15 milionë eurosh, ku 5 milionë euro do të përdoren për të përmirësuar burgun e Gjilanit në pajtim me standardet daneze. Ne duhet ta pozicionojmë historinë e Kosovës si të ndërlidhur me rendin e sigurisë euro-atlantike, sepse qeveria e Kosovës po inkurajon në mënyrë aktive zgjerimin e regjimit të burgjeve dhe kufirit brenda vendit të saj në këmbim të parave, sigurisë dhe armëve, të cilat do të përdoren për të dëmtuar migrantët, së bashku me qytetarët e tyre. Siç na rikujton Piro Rexhepi në White Enclosures: Racial Capitalism and Coloniality Along the Balkan Route (2023), kolonializmi i marrëdhënieve të BE-së në Ballkanin Perëndimor, ku integrimi në BE, partneritetet ekonomike dhe të sigurisë janë të kushtëzuara, me kusht që vendet përgjatë rrugës ballkanike të imigracionit të bëhen vendi i depozitimit për problemin e migrantëve të Evropës dhe tani të Mbretërisë së Bashkuar.
Plani i dështuar i Mbretërisë së Bashkuar me Ruandën dy vite më parë nuk i ka dekurajuar politikanët nga të dyja anët e spektrit politik që të gjejnë një rrugë tjetër drejt zhvendosjes së kufijve të tyre të dhunshëm. Në vend që të ndalojnë pogromin anti-migrant dhe anti-musliman të gushtit 2024 që filloi në Southport dhe më vonë përfshiu të gjithë Mbretërinë e Bashkuar, Kryeministri Keir Starmer po e nxit dhe po e normalizon retorikën anti-migrante. Kjo u pa në maj, kur Starmer tha se Mbretëria e Bashkuar po “bëhet një ishull i të huajve”, duke perifrazuar retorikë të ngjashme nga një tjetër politikan britanik famëkeq dhe racist, Enoch Powell. Vera e vitit 2025 ka qenë po aq e ashpër për komunitetet e azilkërkuesve dhe migrantëve në Mbretërinë e Bashkuar, me një pogrom anti-migrant dhe anti-rom që u zhvillua në qershor në Ballymena, Irlandën e Veriut, e ndjekur nga një seri protestash anti-migrante në Bell Hotel në Epping dhe vende të tjera në Angli.
Politikat e Starmer po ushqejnë retorikën në rritje të ekstremit të djathtë kundër migrantëve, ndërsa Partia Reformiste fashiste po dominon sondazhet, duke inkurajuar dhe normalizuar fashizmin në Mbretërinë e Bashkuar. Ndërkohë, ndërsa media britanike e krahut të djathtë nxit stereotipet se azilkërkuesit kanë qëllime të liga, kriminale dhe seksualisht të devijuara ndërsa janë në Mbretërinë e Bashkuar – pikëpamje që po nxisin kseno-racizëm të normalizuar, ka pak protesta dhe mbulim mediatik për 50 fëmijëtt azil-kërkues e zhdukur nga kujdesi shtetëror. Një numër i konsiderueshëm i fëmijëve azilkërkues që janë zhdukur teksa kanë qenë nën kujdesin e shtetit britanik janë shqiptarë. Dhuna kufitare nëpërmjet politikës 13-vjeçare të Mbretërisë së Bashkuar për një mjedis Armiqësor kundër migrantëve prek të gjitha popullatat e racializuara dhe veçanërisht shqiptarët dhe kosovarët, të cilët, qoftë si azilkërkues apo individë të pa dokumentuar, e gjejnë veten të ndaluar dhe të deportuar rregullisht në fluturime sekrete deportimi pa mundësinë për të kundërshtuar deportimin e tyre.
Si abolicionistë që punojmë për të çmontuar kufijtë e burgjeve dhe dinamikat koloniale që mbështesin sisteme të tilla shtypëse, ne e pranojmë se lufta për t’i dhënë fund kampeve të emigrantëve në Kosovë dhe zgjerimi i kufijve të Mbretërisë së Bashkuar nis prej bashkëpunimit midis aktivistëve të Kosovës dhe Mbretërisë së Bashkuar, dhe më gjerë. Një fushatë transnacionale, e bashkuar dhe e fokusuar për të ndaluar paraburgimin e jashtëm në Kosovë është ajo që ne, të nënshkruarit më poshtë, do të përpiqemi të krijojmë për të ndaluar Mbretërinë e Bashkuar dhe BE-në të trajtojnë në mënyrë tipike koloniale rajonet në zhvillim të Evropës. Ne kërkojmë të afirmojmë çlirimin e migrantëve dhe të ndalojmë politikat gjenocidale kundër migrantëve, të cilat, nga ana tjetër, i detyrojnë ata të marrin vendime më të pasigurta dhe vdekjeprurëse si rezultat i politikave në rritje të kufijve të burgjeve.
A transnational group of organisations and collectives from the Balkans, Europe and the UK has endorsed this statement that was written by members of Europe Other & Unis Resist Border Controls (URBC):
URBC Research & Communication Position Unis Resist Border Controls (URBC) is hiring an ad-hoc researcher & communication role to assist with administrative and comms work. Applicants must have previous documented experience in filing successful FOI requests. Duties will include the following:
Working with URBC to construct questions for FOIs
Submitting FOI requests
Organising FOI responses in an Excel spreadsheet
Organising key findings in a Word document
Support with general research that URBC conducts
Support with social media content creation (infographics, podcasts, & short videos)
We seek to hire a self-motivated person who is organised, completes tasks within an agreed timescale, is a clear communicator, and trustworthy.
URBC is a nine-year, migrant-led, grassroots national campaign working to end border controls via the Hostile Environment policy in UK higher education. We are not an NGO with an NGO-sized budget. Funds used for this research are intended to help support precarious racialised, disabled, and queer migrant students within UK higher education. Applicants should familiarise themselves with the work of URBC before applying.
Hours
The first two weeks of this position will be full-time at 35 hours at the UK living wage of £12.21.
The following weeks would be between 10-20 hours and/or when your services are needed.
To apply Send URBC a 500-word statement outlining your background, experience in activist-oriented work, and specifically with FOI research, and how your expertise in this can best support URBC’s mission. Submitting a CV is not needed for this position. A recommendation letter from an activist group that you’ve been part of is required. Application closes 11:59 PM BST, 20 August 2025.
Please send your application to: unisresistbordercontrols[AT]gmail[DOT]com
1 in 2 migrant students faced difficulties with visa applications.
30% of migrant students had experienced xenophobia.
1 in 3 migrant students had experienced racism.
1 in 5 migrant students worry about money all the time, with borrowing money or working part-time strongly correlating with financial anxiety.
1 in 2 migrant students reported experiencing poor mental health while studying in the UK.
The report found that migrant students believe they are treated as cash cows by both universities and the government due to rising tuition, visa, and International Health Surcharge (IHS) fees.
As we mentioned on our socials, this report corroborates what URBC has been stating consistently for nine years. However, the question is, why is such a report published now? We believe that this report has more to do with the perilous financial situation that UK universities are in. Earlier in May, The Guardianpublished a report from the Office for Students’ (OfS) that found universities in England had a third consecutive year of falling income. The report stated that declining migrant student enrolment was a contributing factor, indicating further, “recruitment levels for these students for 2024-25 are now projected to be about 21% lower than projected last year.” Migrant students pay significantly higher tuition fees than their home (British) student counterparts. Home students tend to forget that their tuition fees are subsidised by the higher tuition fees that migrant students pay. Otherwise, home students would be paying the same high tuition fees that migrant students pay and often go into debt to access the highly valued “world-class” UK higher education. To remedy their growing financial problems, universities are cutting staff down to skeletal levels and selling property. The last few months have seen an increasing number of university staff members from the University College Union (UCU) launch strike actions to stop job losses. For RGSU to publish such a report now concerning the migrant (international) student experience is to acknowledge that there are problems that they are remedying through both governmental and university recommendations. However, what are RGSU’s recommendations for these problems? URBC unpacks these recommendations and uncovers significant gaps.
RGSU recommendations are divided between government policy and university policy recommendations. URBC has grouped these recommendations into four main themes: immigration, financial, housing, and mental health, which are analysed.
Immigration
RGSUs’ government policy recommendations concerning the difficulties that migrant students experience with UK immigration are the following:
“Remove international students and their dependents from the Government’s net migration figures, recognising the temporary nature of their immigration.
“Conduct a cross-departmental impact assessment on how immigration policies and public messaging affect the international student experience.”
“Freeze student visa application fees and the Immigration Health Surcharge [IHS] for students.
“Work with students through RGSU and UKCISA to improve the experience of the visa application process.”
URBC’s thoughts
These recommendations are a microscopic bandage on a large festering wound of xeno-racist immigration policies. None of these government recommendations will be successful without working to end the Hostile Environment policy. What is the Hostile Environment policy, you ask? The Hostile Environment policy is the anti-migrant policy announced by then-Home Secretary Theresa May in 2012, though effectively in place for years previously. The policy extends border policing into universities, healthcare, schools, and other sectors, forcing workers in those sectors to enforce immigration policy. Learn more about how the Hostile Environment policy functions in universities here, in addition to Corporate Watch’s report that unpacks this policy’s effects on other sectors here.
We witnessed the Hostile Environment policy in effect last year when Nigerian students were affected by the Nigerian currency crash, making it difficult to exchange naira for British pounds. As a result, Nigerian students encountered problems paying their tuition fees. Instead of understanding the financial difficulties that these students experienced, which affected their safety and mental health, universities began to withdraw these students, which contributed to the revocation of their student visas. Notable cases were found at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and Teesside University, which also aided in deporting Nigerian students from the UK. URBC had a campaign at MMU, #StopVisaWeaponisation, which uncovered that from our small sample, 25% of Nigerian students at MMU had either been withdrawn or were about to be withdrawn and now faced visa revocation. The Hostile Environment policy makes visa revocations easier, and with zero safety nets in place, migrant students can quickly fall through the cracks with little to no support from their student unions, who do not have training on these matters.
Even if the government removed migrant students from the net migration statistics and allowed migrant students who are undergraduates and on taught masters courses were able once again to bring their dependents, the Hostile Environment policy would persist for them and all other migrants, asylum seekers, and undocumented people. Both migrant students and their dependents would still be harmed by No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF)- a policy that came into effect with the passing of the 1999 Asylum Act and Immigration Act. This means that visa holders, including those on student visas, are prevented from accessing welfare benefits. During the COVID-19 lockdown, URBC had an avalanche of casework of migrant students who found themselves destitute because of a woeful lack of hardship funds at their universities and because of NRPF. That is why we had a campaign during the COVID-19 lockdown to end NRPF for migrant students. RGSUs and UKCISA did not join URBC in calling for the government to end NRPF provisions for migrant students.
As for the RGSUs recommendation for a freeze of visa and IHS fees, URBC has long demanded that these fees are exorbitant and designed to exclude working-class migrant students from studying in the UK. Both RGSUs and UKCISA failed to stop IHS fees when they were implemented in 2015, with the first set of the Hostile Environment policy passed under the 2014 Immigration Act. Neither organisation has launched any legal pushback against the IHS fees. Previous migrant students who studied in the UK never had to pay to access healthcare. The student movement from 2010-2015 was woefully unprepared to stop IHS fees- much of this was the result of national chauvinism within the #FreeEducation movement that sought to prevent the implementation of £9,000 tuition fees for home students. As a result, issues central to migrant students were often isolated and outrightly ignored. Student unions need to do better and link up with campaigns to end the Hostile Environment, like our own and others. We don’t need a freeze- we need to see the end of IHS fees and adopt the Docs Not Cops #PatientsNotPassports #ScrapTheSurcharge campaigns. Visa fees must be lowered, not frozen, and not just for student visa holders, but for all other migrants.
For their university policy recommendation, RGSU believes that universities should “Adopt UKCISA’s #WeAreInternational Student Charter as a framework to improve the international student experience.”
URBC’s thoughts
How does #WeAreInternational, a campaign which was developed by Sheffield Students’ Union in 2013 and later fine-tuned by Peggy Lim between 2016-2018, working under the University of Sheffield Vice Chancellor’s Office & Corporate Communication to market “brand British” higher education abroad, can be seen as a strategy to support migrant students? Lim, who was formerly an international student sabbatical officer at Sheffield Students’ Union between 2015-2016, indicates on their LinkedIn that they,
“Managed and developed the #WeAreInternational campaign, building and maintaining relationships with MPs, Lords and other key stakeholders such as Universities UK and the British Council. Worked with senior University staff (including the Vice-Chancellor) to determine objectives of the campaign. Devised communication plans, measured and analysed the impact of the campaign.”
It seems fitting that the University of Sheffield found a willing migrant student to exploit in their promotion of “model migrant students” while the Hostile Environment policy was being implemented. #WeAreInternational is a smokescreen campaign designed as damage control during the first wave of the Hostile Environment policy, which included the end of the post-study work visa in 2012, the “Go Home” vans instituted by former Home Secretary, Theresa May, and the Home Office revoking London Metropolitan University’s highly trusted sponsorship license. This meant that the university could not sponsor any student visa holders, and 2,700 of their migrant student population had 60 days to find another university to transfer to or face administrative removal by the Home Office. These events cause UK universities to look for ways to instil confidence in their product in order to compete with universities in the United States, Australia, and Europe, who are all vying for a fresh crop of migrant students into their respective countries in addition to the financial incentives these students bring.
#WeAreInternational has been ubiquitous within UK higher education for a number of years, adopted by Universities UK and UKCISA alike through producing brand Britain propaganda exemplified by these well-produced videos; examples here, here, and here. But we know that #WeAreInternational promoted by Universities UK is not friendly to migrant students who are involved with Palestine solidarity activism on campus, best exemplified by the initial treatment that Dana Abuqamar received at the University of Manchester and by the Home Office. Until UK universities dismantle their investments and partnerships with genocidal industries that are also used in the enforcement of carceral border controls, in addition to ending their collusion with the Hostile Environment policy and the Prevent Duty, #WeAreInternational is a hollow campaign that refuses to confront the real systemic problems plaguing migrant student safety.
Financial
In terms of financial problems experienced by migrant students, the RGSU report’s government recommendations include,
“Provide greater flexibility in when students can work, with the ability to spread the total number of hours across the calendar month during term time. Such as 48 hours in 2 weeks during term-time.”
“Permit self-employment for international students to promote freelancing and entrepreneurship.”
The report’s university recommendations also suggests,
“Fix international students’ tuition fees at the point of entry, ensuring they pay the same amount each year through the duration of their studies.”
“Ensure hardship funds are available to all international students who need them with transparent and clear eligibility criteria.”
URBC’s thoughts
Again, these are bandage solutions to the economic barriers experienced by migrant students. A significant number of migrant students are advocating to work above the 20 hours per week limit imposed by their visa conditions. Even if migrant students were able to work more hours per week, they are still hampered by high tuition fees that increase each year. The RGSU report found a direct correlation between migrant students working part-time and/or borrowing money to worsening mental health. Therefore, we have serious reservations about a report that acknowledges mental health problems because of working part-time, yet seeks to remedy financial precarity by increasing migrant student work hours. Is the report suggesting that the only migrant students who can fully participate in the student experience are those with a sizable disposable income?
Even if migrant students’ work hours were increased to 30 hours+ per week, migrant students would still experience financial instability because of rising UK inflation. While the report recommends that migrant students should pay the same amount at the start of their course for the duration of their studies, this proposal does not do enough to combat the original problem- the exorbitant tuition fees that migrant students are forced to pay. Depending on the course, migrant tuition fees can be anywhere between £13,000 to £45,000+ per year. The problem is that tuition fees are still too high. Offering hardship funds and increasing the number of scholarships for migrant students, while needed, are still woefully inadequate measures that will not stop migrant student financial precarity in the UK if migrant student tuition fees are outrageously high. We need a higher education system that does not make financial distinctions between home and migrant students. The very least decolonial, anti-imperialist, anti-racist academics and students should be advocating for now is free education for all students.
More worrying is that the report failed to recommend measures to stop what happened to Nigerian students last summer. Without policies in place to prevent a student’s immigration status from being weaponised as a result of not being able to pay their tuition fees because of financial and political upheaval in their homeland, this abuse within higher education will happen again, aided by the Hostile Environment policy.
Housing
The report’s government policy recommendation includes:
“Work in partnership with local authorities and universities to develop affordable, purpose-built student accommodation in areas of high demand, addressing the housing supply shortages and rising costs facing students.”
“Introduce a requirement that all universities commit to a Student Living Guarantee, which asserts their belief that every student who lives away from home will be able to access housing that is of a reasonable price, a reasonable standard, and a reasonable distance from where they are studying.”
The university policy recommendation is to “Work with their Students’ Union to establish an accredited ‘good landlords’ scheme to better support students in navigating the private rental market.”
URBC’s thoughts
While all of these recommendations are welcomed, we are still very much away from seeing affordable housing in the UK, much less in the student housing sector that has a myriad of problems outlined here. What is proposed in the RGSU report is general to the entire student housing issue. What is missing from these recommendations is acknowledging that the Hostile Environment policy via Right to Rent checks and guarantor process creates further grounds of exploitation that also routinely happen to migrant students. Relating to last year’s Nigerian student cases, what happens to students who cannot pay rent because of financial and political upheaval? Again, the RGSU does not propose anything about this. Migrant student homelessness does happen, best exemplified by Aimée Lê’s case that went viral in 2021 after she related her story as a migrant student forced to live in a tent during her PhD studies. While the story was positioned as a cautionary tale of the exploitative nature of casualised university employment, it also relates to the Hostile Environment policy and NRPF, whereby migrant students and all other migrants have restrictions in accessing affordable housing because of their immigration status. As we argued, if Lê was caught in a Home Office rough sleeper raid, she would have been arrested and potentially could have had her student visa revoked under immigration rules for engaging in migrant rough sleeping. While the Vagrancy Act 1824, which has criminalised rough sleeping, will be repealed next year, it remains to be seen how this will relate to migrants who are forced to rough sleep. A report that fails to underscore how the Hostile Environment policy relates to migrant housing policy is only telling a fragment of the situation at hand.
Mental Health
Relating to migrant student mental health concerns, the RGSU government policy recommendation suggests a launch of “[…] fund to support better university-NHS collaboration to achieve a more joint up approach to mental health and wellbeing care to ensure international students are able to access services.”
URBC’s thoughts
Wouldn’t it be better to end IHS fees in accessing the National Health Service (NHS) to ensure that health services, including NHS mental health support, are truly accessible for migrant students? As the RGSU report indicated, migrant student mental health is a growing problem because of anxiety and stress caused by affording high tuition fees, and paying for equally high visa and IHS fees, in addition to being able to afford daily maintenance (rent, utilities, & food) as a result of growing inflation in the UK. Like the other categories, without student unions working with URBC to end the Hostile Environment policy and NRPF conditions that create the perfect storm that a significant number of migrant students are currently dealing with.
What about the views from sanctuary university students?
Glaringly missing from the RGSU report are the thoughts and opinions from refugee, asylum seeker, and undocumented students on sanctuary university scholarships regarding their treatment within UK higher education. While UK universities have a number of sanctuary university programmes, used as a publicity exercise to show that they have a commitment to anti-racism and diversity, many gaps within these programmes put students in harm as a result of the Hostile Environment policy. Through student activists, URBC learned of a Palestinian student at a Russell Group university who encountered housing problems during their sanctuary scholarship period that the university failed to adequately rectify. In 2022, URBC worked with SOAS sanctuary scholarship students on the #NoSanctuaryAtSOAS campaign that SOAS sanctuary scholarship recipient and activist, Khalfan Al-Badwawi describes in this short video as the key failures within the programme that put him in an unsafe situation because of the Hostile Environment policy. The omission of sanctuary scholarship students from future RGSU reports suggests a gross dereliction in understanding better how immigration policy and barriers, because of the Hostile Environment policy, cause problems also for students in these programmes.
Concluding remarks
While the report’s findings corroborate much of what URBC has said over the nine years we have operated, its solutions to the problems that migrant students are experiencing are deeply insufficient, and deliberately so. URBC believes that the real intention of such a report is to assuage migrant students into thinking that UK higher education is serious in tackling these problems that have plagued universities, many of which we have uncovered in the course of our work and activism.
University bosses have made it clear that they also welcomed a Trump presidency in the United States, as it would help increase migrant student enrolment and alleviate financial problems plaguing UK universities. UK Academics and students alike have been horrified by the persecution of US migrant students involved in Palestine liberation activism, best exemplified in the disturbing treatment of Yunseo Chung, Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, Momodou Taal, and many other cases. There is an increasing number of migrant students detained on ICE raids who had nothing to do with Palestine solidarity activism. Recently, California State University was forced to hold all classes online because of ongoing ICE raids. UK university bosses view the events stateside not with fear, but as an excellent opportunity to benefit from attracting migrant students who would have gone to the US for their studies.
However, the UK’s carceral border policy and attacks on student activism, especially the recent revelation by Liberty that found Raytheon UK had requested that Heriot-Watt University spy on student activists involved in arms divestment and Palestine liberation activism, do not elicit much confidence in “brand British” higher education. How does one gain that confidence back? By allowing student unions to admit to problems in the higher education sector for migrant students, with a “we’re working on it” type of non-committal, woefully deficient solutions that lull migrant students into believing that the UK is a safer option to study in. However, the RGSU recommendations fail to tackle the larger problem- the Hostile Environment policy and universities’ collusion in this policy. Student unions should be guided by URBC on ending the Hostile Environment policy & work with us on supporting migrant students.
This is the long form piece by Sanaz Raji, following the edited piece that was published in the Times Higher Education, 20 December 2024.
Eleven years ago I launched a public campaign as a migrant PhD student at the University of Leeds. This campaign happened when the third year of my scholarship funding was rescinded, only two weeks from the start of the 2011-2012 enrolment period. Funding was pulled in breach of the university’s rules. I was expected to find £13,700 in four weeks’ time before the end of the enrolment period in order to finish my PhD research. This incident followed a campaign of victimisation that I experienced during the start of my PhD. Three requests for a change of my primary PhD supervisor were denied. I was forced into a supervisory arrangement that did not work. During this period, I had a number of health problems that my supervisory team weaponised against me. I was forced to work while unwell. The department claimed that I wasn’t making sufficient academic progress. However, they created the consistent barriers that prevented me from advancing with my research. Taking away funding at the third year into the PhD and expecting me to locate funding quickly to meet the enrolment deadline was a most convenient and vicious way for my primary supervisor to appear blameless while they offloaded me from the department.
