More than 100 Nigerian students on scholarship in the United
Kingdom universities could be deported home as early as this week except their
fees are settled immediately, according to The Telegraph of London.
The
students are said to be sponsored by a regional agency and some of them are
saddled with debts of up to £20,000.
The
name of the sponsor agency was not given in the report.
The report described the students as “some of the Nigeria’s
brightest undergraduates.”
They
have been told that they will not receive their degree certification even
though many of them completed their courses in the last academic year.
The
newspaper said some of the affected students claimed they have been warned they
could be deported by Friday, October 20.
It
said the Nigerian High Commission in London confirmed that 152 students had
been caught up in the scandal, and that the sponsor agency had been left with a
“draught of funding” due to a slump in Nigeria’s oil revenues.
The
High Commission said in a statement that additional funding had been approved
for 87 students. There was no mention of how soon the bill would be paid.
The universities of Leeds and Essex said they “sympathised” with
the affected students but declined to say whether their visas would be revoked.
They
said that they were working closely with the Nigerian High Commission to
resolve the dispute.
The
University of Sussex claimed it had allowed one student to graduate, but
declined to comment on whether their transcript had been withheld. It added
that it had been providing “some financial assistance for living costs in cases
of particular hardship.”
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