#WeAreAllSue: Unmasking Deception in International Student Recruitment
Earlier this week, the BBC published a story about Sue Agazie, a research student from Nigeria who the home office has asked to leave the UK.
Full disclosure: I have known Sue for 20 years. We attended the same university in Nigeria and have kept in touch since leaving the University of Benin. I informed Sue of my intention to write about her story, aiming to address deception in the international student recruitment sector and prevent further student exploitation. Importantly, in my personal capacity, I am lending my voice to the Unis Resist Border Controls (URBC) #WeAreAllSue campaign to support Sue to remain in the UK and get all the support she needs.
I am saddened by these developments because I am aware of the events leading up to Sue embarking on a research degree at Newcastle University. I have decided to speak up because we need to address some questionable university recruitment practices that have put many international students like Sue in distress. As a former sabbatical officer and student president, I have a good network of associates in UK higher education and the student movement. I hope this serves as an opportunity for us to address university recruitment gimmicks that promise students scholarships only for them to find out there is no such opportunity. Thankfully, the government is addressing the issue of international student recruitment, yet many remain unaware of the deceptive tactics used by schools to recruit students.
Back to Sue’s story. In June 2022, she reached out to me, sharing that an African lecturer from Newcastle University contacted the School of Media and Communication at Pan-Atlantic University, where she did her postgraduate degree in marketing, claiming to be recruiting PhD applicants. She expressed her interest, and he promised her funding and a job at the university. I had mixed feelings about it because I have seen similar patterns where people are promised scholarships only to arrive in the UK after paying the minimum deposit and being told to pay the full tuition. Some students had to drop out of the course but were fortunate to switch to a dependent or work visa before the restriction on visa switching took effect in July 2023.
I told Sue I suspected this lecturer might just be recruiting students to enrich his research portfolio. The lecturer reassured her that she would get funding. Given that Newcastle is a Russell Group university, I thought funding might not be an issue. She was supposed to start her course in September 2023, but the lecturer was keen on her starting in January, claiming there was a position available for her to work at the school. This accelerated her enrollment. I still had reservations, but I stopped sharing them with her to avoid discouraging her.
In February 2023, Sue contacted me to say she had started her program. Upon arrival in the UK, she discovered she had been deceived by her supervisor; there was no funding or job waiting for her at the university. I gave her the response, “I told you,” but the deed had already been done, and she focused on my immediate solution. Sue began searching for grant opportunities. She sent the opportunities she found to her supervisor, who was eligible to apply on her behalf, but he expressed disinterest. Things became messy, and she launched a GoFundMe to support her fees but was later told to take it down as the school would see what they could do. Sue and her husband successfully settled the £13,700 first-year fees, anticipating a resolution to the funding issue for her second year.
I assumed she had received help from the university and didn’t speak to her again until this issue resurfaced in April 2024. While complaints against her supervisor and the funding issues were still being considered, the university advised that they would report her to the Home Office for not enrolling for the second year. Coincidentally, I spoke with another student in the same situation, facing similar empty promises with the same lecturer. Two separate events yet similar deceptive promises about a job offer and funding from the same lecturer. This further validates my previous observations regarding the deceitful methods some schools employ to attract research students. When faced with the threat of a visa cancellation from the university, some students who get threatened bow to pressure, sell their assets back home, and rally relatives to pay, but when are we going to put an end to this deception being perpetuated in the international student recruitment space?
On May 20th, Sue received a letter from the Home Office stating she needed to leave the UK by July 20, 2024. I have focused more on the events leading to her programme in the UK because I believe universities need to address the deception in the international student recruitment process, and we need to call out sharp practices in higher education research. This is especially necessary now, as only research students are allowed to bring dependents, making them more vulnerable to exploitation.
I have not spoken much about Sue’s battle with stage five kidney disease, as I only became aware of it when she was trying to raise funding to pay her fees in the UK. In the past two decades that I have known Sue, she has been a dogged and resilient woman, and I believe she will come out stronger. Sue has been receiving massive support from Unis Resist Border Controls (URBC). We can all support the URBC #WeAreAllSue campaign by speaking out for Sue. I really wish it never got to this point, but this is where we are. Please support the #WeAreAllSue campaign by donating to GoFundMe [here] (https://www.gofundme.com/f/weareallsue-support-a-disabled-migrant-phd-student-at-nu).
Francisca Kanayo Otu
