Dr Qaisar Rashid
On 15 November 2024, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan and the British Council jointly announced to launch Phase-II of the Pak-UK Education Gateway, at the HEC Secretariat, Islamabad. Predicating on the success of Phase-I (launched in 2018), the program, which will begin formally in June this year, aims to strengthen bilateral collaboration between Pakistan and the United Kingdom (UK) in the sector of higher education.
In the UK, the higher education system does not follow a straight line. Instead, it is replete with deviations. There exists no mechanism for alerting Pakistani students to the fraud committed in the name of higher education in the UK. On the other hand, the British Council is just a charity organization, which acts as a procurer – to solicit clients to the service provider only. As per its own claims, the Council is not responsible for any compromise in the delivery of the quality of education and research offered in the UK’s universities, whether or not students go through the HEC.
Just to put things in perspective, on 13 April 2012, The Guardian published a news item titled “Pakistanis students applying for UK visa will face compulsory interview.” The news item relied on a pilot study carried out secretly by the UK Border Agency claiming that 40% of applicants for student visas from Pakistan would prove ineligible, because they could not speak English, as they were bogus students who wanted to immigrate to the UK in the guise of international students. The Agency had carried out the secret study at the behest of Theresa May, who was Home Secretary (2010- 2016). May wanted to introduce a new student visa and immigration policy.
In response, a group of Pakistan’s international students, who had founded an organization “Speak for Pakistan (SfP)” in London, wrote letters to Theresa May (sent to her office at 2 Marsham Street, SW1P 4DF, London) with a request to launch a secret pilot study into the deeds of the UK’s 15 top ranking universities as well, to discover that most of these universities run bogus courses at the post-graduate level even in the field of research (life sciences) just to earn money. That is, black sheep existed on both sides. If Pakistani students were involved in exploiting the entry system, UK’s top universities were also guilty of deceiving international students by running bogus courses in the name of delivering post-graduate degrees.
The British Home Office, which is otherwise known for issuing a swift reply, did not respond at all. In their letters, international Pakistani students also requested her to reveal the results of the secret study to the British media as well to let the British public identify the hidden ugly face of the UK’s higher education too. On 12 December 2012, May delivered a keynote immigration speech titled “An immigration system that works in the national interest,” and cleverly avoided speaking on the deeds of the UK’s top universities. She did mention the name of a few small low-ranking universities such as the Glasgow Caledonian University, but she avoided mentioning the names of any high-ranking university such as the University of Glasgow, which had earned notoriety in this regard. On the part of May, the evasion was an act of injustice to the cause she was trying to promote. The SfP could not find the answer: If “Britain is open for business to the best and the brightest”, why the UK’s universities are themselves short of being best and brightest?
Robbing international students of their time and money is a crime. May watched the interests of her country aptly but she failed to notice that British professors (who are PhDs) heading departments to run post-graduate courses were involved in malpractices which ruined the time and money of international students. When caught red-handed, these professors hide behind the system while the university concerned hushes up the matter by issuing letters of apology to international students. Dozens of international Pakistani students carry such letters of apology. When asked to the British Council working in Pakistan about the utility of such letters, the Council expresses its helplessness and extends an excuse that it is just a charity organization sans any power or responsibility. That is, on the one hand, the British Council is active in promoting the cause of the UK’s universities in Pakistan, whereas on the other hand, the Council shows its feebleness when a testing time approaches. The question is this: can a letter of apology be a substitute for the time and money spent by an international Pakistani student in the UK?
Indifference disrespects international students. On 16 May 2023, London-based Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and Universities UK International (UUKI) issued a report titled “The benefits and costs of international higher education students to the UK economy.” Elaborating on the benefits of international students across the UK, the report said that international students boost UK economy by £41.9 billion in the academic year 2021-22. Moreover, international students living in constituencies in Glasgow, Newcastle, Sheffield, Nottingham, and London delivered the greatest financial contributions, making a £58 million net economic contribution per constituency, equivalent to approximately £560 per local citizen.
Enrolling more international students means more inflow of cash, which is beneficial to both the UK’s universities and the economy. This is why both the HEPI and UUKI called for more to be done to promote the UK as an accessible study destination. This point provokes an interesting paradox. On the one hand, there is pressure on the British Council to push more international students towards the UK’s universities, whereas on the other hand, the Council is impotent. This reality must be known to every Pakistani student heading for the UK.
The writer is a freelance columnist. He can be reached at qaisarrashid@yahoo.com
