International Students Feel Forgotten and Trapped in Lockdown

It has been two years since Nelson Nyandoro, a third year student at the University of Lincoln, has gone home. Coronavirus has thrown any plans of returning into disarray, and the Zimbabwe-born pharmacy undergrad is worried that he may not be allowed back into the UK if he leaves.

To make matters worse, his practical sessions, where students are meant to gain hands-on experience for their degree, have all been cancelled. “We are paying so much money for facilities we can’t even use anymore,” he tells VICE. “My entire course was centred around labs, but I can’t do that anymore.”

University students all over the UK are now used to virtual lectures and tutorials replacing their education – an alienating experience that has seen over half a million people call for a reduction in fees. 

International students face an even bleaker reality. Many have left their home countries dreaming of adventure and a fresh start, but are now paying exorbitant fees – anywhere between £9,250 and £39,475 per year – to simply stay in their rooms and log on to class. 

“The pandemic has exposed fundamental problems with how higher education is funded in this country,” says Jenny Smith, policy manager of Student Minds, an advocacy group for student mental health. “When higher education is treated like a commodity, it is no surprise that students may feel mis-sold when they feel they are not getting what they signed up for.”

Students interviewed by VICE said that none of their universities had addressed the issue of lowering fees, with only a few unis promising a partial refund of accommodation expenses. International students are a huge part of the student community in the UK, and also contribute about £25 billion to the UK economy. Unlike their UK peers, many international students pay their fees upfront in cash as opposed to a non-commercial loan offered by Student Finance England.

“This means that policy interventions such as student debt cancellation may do little to help them,” Student Minds told VICE. “Any interventions made to put money back in students’ pockets must be accessible to international students too, and account for the additional difficulties they face compared to their UK-domiciled peers.”

The reduction of fees has been a major point of contention for many international communities, especially as refunds would help relieve the financial pressure many of them have been facing. In January, a troubling Channel 4 documentary highlighted how desperate the situation has become, with a food bank in East London revealing that it now exclusively caters to destitute students from abroad. 

“In a time where international students have had to access food banks in order to survive, it is crucial that there is further funding directed to international students to support them,” NUS national president Larissa Kennedy told VICE.

On the 2nd of February, the government announced a £50 million student relief fund to alleviate the financial pressure of the pandemic, with universities in charge of assessing the needs of both local and international students.

But this hasn’t stopped some students from feeling “dismissed”, as Harshavardhini Pareek, a second-year student at the University of York, puts it.

“The universities could be handling this better,” she says. “I am admittedly disappointed about my tuition fees. I don’t like the fact that I am paying them so much for online classes and pre-recorded lectures from the last couple of years – it just feels dismissive.”

A University of York spokesperson told VICE: “We are sorry to hear that one of our students feels disappointed and we encourage them to get in touch, as a valuable learning experience is critical to how we are supporting students during this pandemic. We have committed £3.5m in services and programmes to provide support for all students with academic, financial, health and wellbeing needs. All our teaching has been adapted by experts in their field, whether students are with us on campus, or joining us virtually across the globe, our students learn from, and work with, leading academics.”

A staggering 52 percent of students reported that their mental health has deteriorated or been affected negatively due to the pandemic. With family and friends often hundreds of miles away, loneliness has affected international students greatly, but Student Minds found that international students are “less likely to engage with university wellbeing and counselling services than their UK-domiciled peers”.

When Sahar Arshad a first year student came to the UK to study biomedical science at Kings College London in January 2021. She was excited about her big life move, but it quickly turned sour when everything was shut down. “We’re very lucky we live in this time of technology and there is video chat and FaceTime and Skype. At the same time, a huge coping mechanism is actually meeting people and making friends and going out and the fact that we’re not able to do that means we have fewer ways to cope.”

Right now, what international students want is transparency, compassion and help. Many feel it is not their place to ask for help, but the financial cost of keeping quiet may already be too much to bear.

“I feel as though local students are already facing so many issues with universities at the moment that there just isn’t space for international students to speak up and talk about what they’re facing,” Sahar says. “But we do make up a big part of the universities – we deserve as much clarity about the future of our university lives as possible.”