UK Doesn’t Work On ‘Assumptions’; Expert Says About Student Ban

While the United Kingdom is likely to impose a ban on Nigerian students bringing their families, an expert, education researcher, Dr. Peter Ogudoro explained that the UK is not a country that would make decisions based on "assumptions."

The researcher explained that the UK look at the data and understands that a lot of students bring their families along and those family members are not "highly skilled people." However, Ogudoro noted that the UK government has never made studies difficult for students who genuinely come to study.

"What we find out is that our poverty here (Nigeria), which has a lot to do with bad governance as our political leaders have not done well over the years, propelled us to want to leave the country," he said, Punch reported. "But at the same time, we don't want to leave our families behind for them to suffer."

He explained that the UK government has realized in the past few years that students of many nationalities, who want to study in the UK, also want to bring their family members along including spouses and children.

Due to this, Ogudoro noted that there must be a "significant burden on the public treasury in the UK," adding that education is a source of income for the UK government as students pay their fees.

However, if one student, brings two or three family members, then it might not be beneficial for UK government.

"They (the UK government) look at data because it is a country that doesn't work on assumptions, and data is obviously revealing that a lot of people that the students studying in the UK drag along are actually not highly skilled people," he explained.

He continued, "When you drag children who are at the kindergarten level, who come and get into the UK school system and are to be catered for with funds from the treasury, you are making a demand that the UK government may not, given their current circumstances, find convenient to shoulder."

Ogudoro shared that the UK government wants to "limit" these expenses, especially for those students who are coming to do a master's degree. The ban will be imposed on all the master's students and post-grads. However, PhD students won't be affected by this restriction.

"They (The UK government) are saying if you are coming to do Ph.D., it is still fine for you to bring your wife and children, but they don't understand why somebody will be coming to the UK to do a master's programme and you are dragging everybody in your family along to come with you," the researcher said.

He pointed out that the whole purpose of promoting international education was not to bring family members along but to study.

Ogudoro also slammed the Nigerian government and said that this is high time to work on the education system within the country and treat lecturers well by paying them on time.