An often overlooked area of migration are international students. This is due to their position as students, associated with temporary migration, or assumptions surrounding significant wealth. Following on from research we conducted on COVID-19 lockdowns and destitution, and from subsequent engagement with international students on specifics they have raised, we will be carrying out further work on key issues, including housing, enrolment, and university errors and surveillance.

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International Students Report

International students are often invisible victims of the Hostile Office. Their perceived temporary status and wealth to study internationally means that they are often disregarded in migrants’ rights advocacy, despite facing increasing restrictions on their immigration conditions in the UK. This is why we have conducted this research to understand how international students are treated by the Hostile Office.

Our new research has found that students are commodified and treated as an income stream. Their wellbeing and financial security are secondary to universities’ priority of collecting tuition fees, while harsh immigration policies mean that many struggle to meet stringent financial obligations, and are often unable to bring family with them. International students also experience lack of financial and wellbeing support from universities, heavy surveillance, restrictive immigration checks and threats of being reported to the Home Office. Another significant issue is problematic agents and recruitment practices, where students have been asked to pay additional fees or have been subjected to scams.

Our research also found that:

• 55% of international students reported negative effects on their mental health as a result of anti-immigration sentiment, isolation, visa worries and financial struggles
• 41% of international students said that they have been treated differently, with 31% experiencing discrimination in housing
  • Survey respondents also reported discrimination from university staff including assumptions about their English-speaking ability based on their nationality
• 38% said that current visa compliance surveillance measures are too invasive 
• 38% of students were involved in activism before but not at university, mostly because of worry over repercussions affecting their visa (56%) 

Alongside an end to the Hostile Environment and dehumanising anti-migrant rhetoric, we call for

• Better support for international students by universities and Students’ Unions
• Clearer avenues for international students to complain and seek support when they have been failed by their universities
• An end to the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) status, which further harms international students, and places them at risk of destitution and suffering.
• Expanded university hardship funds that are accessible to international students

Read the report here.

Education Know Your Rights Guide for International Students

We have created this guide as a tool for international students who are thinking about studying in the UK, or who are already studying the UK. It was produced in response to common experiences and issues identified by international students who participated in our international student survey, as part of our wider Hostile Office campaign. While this resource is not legal advice, it lists things to look out for that international students commonly come across, such as information on recruitment, enrolment, housing and surveillance.

Download here.

LRU x MRN Guide to Private Renting for International Students

In collaboration with London Renters’ Union (LRU), we have created a guide for international students to navigate the private rental sector. This includes information and advice on issues such as poor housing conditions, excessive costs, and harassment from landlords, which can all heighten the risk of destitution and exploitation.

Download the guide here.

Survey for International Students

Please use this form to feedback on our international students Know Your Rights materials, including the private renting guide. We will use this feedback to develop our Know Your Rights guide to better serve international students.

International students and the Hostile Environment

Enrolment

Many students have experienced delays in receiving their visas, whether from the Home Office or from delays in universities submitting the necessary documents. Recently, we have been contacted by several international students who have found significant issues within the enrolment process. They shared that they have been given the wrong dates to arrive by their university and then left to deal with the consequences of potential visa issues in relation to the university’s error. There seems to be little regard to the visa process timeline, particularly for countries where there is more difficulty and more questioning during the visa process. Universities have placed an expectation on the international students to be present in the UK to formally enrol and undertake the induction process based on their timelines and do not give enough grace to visa and travel arrangement delays.

Surveillance

The hostile environment has been present on university campuses for almost 10 years. They have been using varying forms of surveillance to monitor international students’ attendance of classes, as a certain level of attendance is a requirement of Tier 4 visas. We have heard that this can range from lecturers taking a register of students physically present, to being asked to sign in via a QR code or tap their student ID at the entrance of a lecture theatre.

We are concerned about the reach of surveillance and creep of borders into lectures,  ostracising international students from home students, and leaving them under heavy scrutiny. 

Barriers to support

There seems to be a woeful lack of support for international students when they experience issues like tech issues. We have spoken to several students who have faced technical issues in submitting assignments during the course of their degrees, and have failed to be supported by their unions or even guided to their wellbeing teams when they are overwhelmed by the situation. 

International students already face barriers to support because they have no recourse to public funds (NRPF). This is exacerbated by not being allowed to work beyond a set number of hours per week. There are inadequate structures in place to support these students: too little is offered through hardship funds, which they may be rejected from, particularly as international students, and there is inadequate signposting to external support. Little consideration is then given to students who face any extraordinary financial issues.

Lack of clarity in universities’ policies and procedures

We have discovered that there is unnecessary rigidity, and a lack of consideration on how universities’ policies and procedures are applied. Universities fail to understand how resits of exams or assignments can leave an international student having failed to complete their course, and therefore unable to achieve a qualification. When universities set resits because of technical errors the students have faced, they leave the international student in a dilemma- their visas will expire prior to the resit dates, or they won’t get the grading until after their visas have expired so making them ineligible for a Graduate visa. 

What else are we going to do?

We will be using a variety of methods to understand the experiences and key issues facing international students. We have launched a survey with the report, to measure how helpful the handbook and other Know Your Rights materials are, as well as providing space for students to let us know any areas that are missing or lacking. We encourage international students to reach out to us concerning issues they or their peers have faced.

We are using a range of ways to influence and support those that reach out to us but ultimately we want to create change for all international students so that no one has to be burdened with these issues in the first place.  

Updates

• Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) Review: Graduate Visa
• Graduate Visa Scheme: causing problems for international students
• Open letter to Teeside University on its treatment of international students

You can find previous work and comments regarding international students here.