Student who was bound for Oxford now facing deportation
ATALENTED student offered a place at Oxford faces losing his university dream after being threatened with deportation.
Brian White is desperate to take up the chance to read chemistry amid the dreaming spires after scoring three A*s and an A in his A-Levels.
But Mr White, who lived in an orphanage in Zimbabwe until he was six, faces being sent back to Africa – despite being adopted by his British father, Peter White, when he was 12.
The talented 21-year-old, who lives with his adoptive family in Penn, Wolverhampton, was told his permission to stay in Britain had expired.
Friend Luke Wilcox, who attended the city’s Highfields School with Mr White, has now launched a petition to campaign for Mr White to stay in the country and pursue his Oxford dream.
The cause has been backed by Wolverhampton-born author and Times journalist Caitlin Moran, who called Mr White a “maths genius” on Twitter.
Mr Wilcox said: “It wasn’t until Brian applied for student finance that he realised his UK status had expired. “It’s the most horrible situation. “Brian is the most hard-working student I know, and he deserves his place at university.
“At school he would stay after classes and revise, and it inspired his classmates to do the same.
“His birth parents abandoned him when he was a baby, and his friends and family are here now. If he was sent back to Zimbabwe he wouldn’t know anyone.
“Brian would be an amazing asset to the future of the UK – but he’s a fantastic person too.”
Father Peter White encountered Brian at orphanage in Zimbabwe.
He fostered and then adopted the boy while he was living in Botswana.
Mr White came to the UK aged 15 when his father returned with his wife and the couple’s other two sons.
While studying for his A-Levels in biology, chemistry, maths and physics, he was offered a place at Oxford.
But it emerged during his application for a loan that he had only been grant-
Brian is the most hard-working student I know... he would be an amazing asset to the future of the UK
first the
Friend Luke Wilcox
ed limited rather than indefinite leave to remain in the UK by the Home Office when he was adopted. Oxford allowed Mr White to defer his place a year, and he worked as a teaching assistant at his old school. But, while university bosses are now demanding to know whether he can start his course in the new academic year, the Home Office is not expected to make a decision until the end of September. Mr Wilcox, a law student at Bristol University, said: “Brian has an opportunity to study at one of the world’s most prestigious universities. “It would be a disgrace if he was not allowed the chance to pursue this.” A Home Office spokesperson said: “We understand the urgency of Mr White’s case and have contacted him to reassure him that we are looking to resolve his application as soon as possible.”