Nigerians, Britain’s Economy

why should they encourage new ones?

“This problem of immigration is not limited to the British, it is particularly more evident in France, especially in terms of the ArabMoslems in that country. France is playing host to the class of immigrants than any country in Europe.

“Besides, landed immigrants are the biggest fear of any embassy with great power including France, UK, United States etcetera,” Prof. Akinterinwa told The Guardian.

Prof. Akinterinwa said UK has had immigration problems for a long time, particularly, since time of Brexit. When the British first sought membership of the European Economic Community in the 60s before it was later called the European Community. The Community later became the European Union following the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, the foundation treaty which had profound impact on European integration.

The British were not admitted earlier in the 1960s as a result of the policy stance of President Charles de Gaulle of France. It was only from January 1, 1973 that the admission of Britain was made possible following the departure of Charles de Gaulle.

Prof. Akinterinwa further narrated that two years after Britain’s admission to the European Community under the Conservative government of Edward Heath, a Referendum on the European Community, also known as the Common Market Referendum took place June 1975 in the United Kingdom to gauge support for the country’s continued membership of the three European Communities.

The manifesto for the October 1974 general election had promised that the people would decide through the ballot box whether to remain in the EC. Britain narrowly got support for continued membership of the EC. At the time of the referendum in June 1975 the UK was just one of nine member states that made up the European Communities.

The Referendum was the only national referendum to be held on the UK’S relationship with Europe until the 2016 ‘ Brexit Referendum’ on continued EU membership.

The irony of the European Community membership for Britain was that it must open its doors to free movement of people and goods from the Community. That economic cooperation effort, Prof. Akinterinwa said, was the genesis of Britain’s issues with immigration as a foreign policy.

He said the issue of the British looking at foreigners coming from Eastern Europe became a matter for policy debate. This was ahead of the second plebiscite.

Prof. Akinterinwa said the British believed much in their greatness, not only in name, but in every sense of it as father of industrialization that in their desire for self identity, they decided for Brexit. “The EU at this time had become a super national authority wielding policy directions for member states, many of which the

British found difficult to comply with. This is how the anti- foreigner direction in Britain started,” Akinterinwa explained.

He pointed out that already, “Britain had a policy that distinguished between home and foreign students. The home students do not pay as much as the foreign students. This, in itself, is discrimination against immigrants.”

An example of Prof. Akinterinwa’s view is where international students would pay as much as £ 30,000 a year while home students pay £ 9,000. The reality infact is that international students make a significant contribution to British universities which actually supports the creation of more opportunities for domestic students, not fewer.

Secondly, a not insignificant number of university programmes run at narrow margins that meant overseas students on the programme is the difference between the programme running at all or closing down.

Lastly, even in institutions with large numbers of highly selective programmes, those overseas students are contributing very significantly more than 100 per cent of the university’s surplus and directly funding capital investment that enables the expansion of those programmes in future years.

However, concerns are already being raised on how UK universities would grapple with declining admissions and revenues from foreign students, following the implementation of the dependant visa ban policy.

In contrast to January 2023 figures, deposit payments, a critical indicator, have plummeted ahead of the January 2024 enrolment by 52 per cent, Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies ( CAS) issuance by 64 per cent, and visa issuance has seen even more drastic decline by 71 per cent.

Insights from admissions tech solution Enroly reveal that despite a 4.8% overall increase in CAS issuance for UK universities, there have been decline in enrolments from Nigeria and Nigeria across a sample of 43 institutions in September 2023.

Director of international development at Northumbria University, Rob Carthy, said the university has seen substantial reduction in Nigerian student numbers and we are already having those conversations about diversity”, Carthy said.

The Enroly data also reveals the dependance of UK universities on a relatively small number of global education agencies. Agentrecruited applications to the UK accounted for 58 per cent of all students, rising to 71 per cent of applicants who received a CAS or visa. The top agents account for 9.85 per cent of all international students with a CAS/ Visa issued for the UK, with 25.22. per cent of all students coming from the top 5 agents, and 33. per cent from the top 10.