Do you really want to be an international student in the UK?

2008-06-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

Hello! Everyone.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I have been thinking of creating a blog for ages. Some of you might be able to relate, when I say that procrastination is a killer. Better late then never eh? I hope this blog serves as a guide to anyone who is a non-EU national to make up his/her mind to come to the UK for higher education. Apart from sharing my experiences, I really want to share some of my frustrations. Welcome to my rant!

Let me tell you a bit about myself. I am an Indian national now living in Scotland, thanks to the money making cash cow named the Fresh Talent Scheme created by the Scottish Executive. Don't get me wrong, Scotland is a very beautiful country. The weather sucks most of the year, but this is a cold country bursting with warm people. I have been born and brought up as a god fearing vegetarian Hindu. I am nowhere close to being religious as my parents are, but i like being a vegetarian. Apparently being vegetarian is good for reducing your carbon footprint. I have been educated through an English medium Catholic School in Mumbai. I still love my school and make it a point to visit the school church atleast once a year. I managed to complete my Bachelors Degree in Mathematics from The University of Mumbai. I then joined a UK college for doing a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management, just because I was not good enough to get an admission to any of the Management Institutes in Mumbai; the reservation system in India has made it ever more difficult for those like me who are from the open category.

It was only later that me and my other Indian friends realised that this college based in England is nothing short of a visa scam. Not satisfied with the education I received from the College and being bored as hell of being in England I decided to move to Scotland. It seemed like a great idea then. I thought it would be great to do a degree in retailing to capitalise on the retail boom in India. 'M. Sc. in Retail Management' seemed too good to give a second thought. University of Stirling is the only Institution in the UK which offers this degree and has one of the most respected names in UK retailing which makes up the Department of Retail Studies. I was very confident about my prospects after having graduated from here, it just seemed perfect as I was going to get the chance to work in Scotland for 2 years after graduation. I had a great time at the University which probably has the most beautiful campus in Europe, met people from different countries and made some long lasting friendships.

So what really happened after I got my graduation certificate in Nov 2006? My student visa was due to expire on 31 Dec 2006. I had to leave Stirling in August 2006 as my lease was due to run out and there was no scope of getting full time employment in Stirling, as it is a small student city. I moved to Glasgow as my other Indian friends were moving there as well and I had not yet managed to sort my own accommodation. I really wanted to move to Edinburgh, but had to settle for rough, industrial, ugly and filthy Glasgow. It was not until mid October that I finally managed to find a temporary full time job as a call centre agent for a major Insurance Company. I thought it would be a good idea to earn some money and go for a little tour of Scotland before I get the Fresh Talent Scheme Visa and find myself a 'Proper' job. Both of these things remain elusive till date. I got the call centre job after being unemployed for six weeks. I had to resort to borrowing money from friends because I was ashamed of asking for any more money from my ever willing parents from India. That job lasted for about 5 weeks and then I was back at square one. Most of the earnings from that employment went towards repaying the borrowed sum. The famed Haggis tour was out of the window. Immediately after that, I was sorting mail at the Royal mail during the busy Christmas period as a temporary staff again.

Along with me were a lot of other international students mostly Asians like myself. My colleague at the bag opening section was a bright North Indian guy who had done a Masters in Space Mission Analysis & Design from Glasgow University, I asked him to repeat it once again the first time I heard it. That was the moment when I started having doubts about my own future; I was truly 'Lost in Space'. We became good mates and even went to Liverpool together for visa extension as the Home Office in Glasgow which was just a 5 minutes walk from my rented accommodation was fully booked. Once I got the visa I started hunting for a relevant job relentlessly. I tried everything from approaching companies directly to registering with incompetent Employment Agencies for graduate level jobs, nothing worked. Most companies I approached said that they could not hire me as I did not have a work permit, you can't really get a work permit unless you have a job offer and vice versa. Like most international students I find myself in a catch 22 situation. The truth is that, there is too much red tape for UK companies to hire international individuals. They need to advertise a vacancy in a major way; they are then required to prove that no individual in the whole of UK or EU is fit for the job hence the job has been given to an International candidate. Graduate Trainee Programmes are simply out of reach, international candidates are not even considered. Unless you are a Doctor, Scientist or IT professional there seems to be no hope of finding a career for yourself. But then, even the Doctors are struggling. Earlier this year Indian Doctors had to fight their way for their right to continue working in the UK, which was under threat under the new points based visa system.

Finally the rising bills, borrowings and 5 weeks into unemployment forced me to take the first one that came along. I was working as a call centre agent again, this time for a very popular entertainment company. I worked there for 10 torturous weeks of my life. I was working three days on and three days off, I worked a 11 hr shift everyday and the half hour lunch was unpaid. I was then rescued by a major UK bank, which hired me as a Customer Service Officer (CSO). I have been working for them since Apr'07 still struggling to climb the ladder. February this year I was given recognition for being the best performing CSO in the Glasgow region and was awarded by being flown to London for 2 days. I started thinking that things are finally falling into place but this was just another illusion. The 2 days of promised fun and celebrity style treatment was a big disappointment not just for me, but for the other achievers as well. We still managed to have a laugh though. I am still a consistent performer and my branch manager speaks highly of me. My manager had suggested that I apply for the graduate trainee programme and handed me a leaflet about the programme. The fine print on the leaflet had the following written on it - "If you are on the Fresh Talent Scheme Visa then you are not eligible to apply", my hopes of a fulfilling career came crashing down like a house of playing cards. One moment I was on Cloud No. 9 and the next I was in the chips, buckfast bottle, Ned and newspaper littered SPT subway on my way back home. I am trying to keep my hopes up by looking at internal head office jobs. My European girlfriend with whom I have been having a long distance relationship since July '07 keeps me going.

Slowly and steadily I have started believing that individuals like me have become victims of a cheap labour scam of astronomical proportions. I have started believing that the political and materialistic ambitions of someone somewhere are being satisfied in a big way. The Universities are definitely making heaps and heaps of money from the kind of fees they extract from International students, who pay 4 times more than a UK or EU citizen. A major part of my salary is deducted every month to go towards National Insurance, something I will never ever benefit from because my visa clearly states that I have 'No recourse to public funds', yet I contribute towards it. Why? Scottish Universities started attracting a record number of students since it launched the Fresh Talent Scheme, surely this must have delivered sunny beaches, cocktails-with-little-umbrellas and straw hats for some. It is rumoured that other UK universities compelled the government to abolish the Fresh Talent Scheme and introduce the International Graduates Scheme so that the other Universities can gain the same monetary benefit enjoyed by Scottish Universities. I wonder what really was the purpose of the Fresh Talent Scheme. You don't really need Post Graduate Degree holders to clean toilets, flip burgers after every 30 seconds, be call centre agents, sort mail during Christmas or be a CSO like me.

In April this year I was a part of a study conducted by Strathclyde University to gather the views of International Students who are now living in Scotland through the Fresh Talent Scheme in relation to their work experience. Most of the focus group subjects were as frustrated as me due to the limited scope available for securing a career. Some suggested that companies could make a provisional offer to International Candidates and let them sort the work permit on their own. Most of the respondents were females and said that they did not rule out marrying their partners who are EU citizens if everything else failed. I am probably foolish for still keeping my hopes up in the search for a 'Proper' job. To add to my confusion I am now in love with someone who may not be willing to move with me to India if I decided to go back home, which is fair enough. I could get married to her if I felt that the relationship was worth it, but the funny thing is that even that is not a simple straight forward matter. She is an EU citizen but not a British national and so we cannot get married in the UK without permission, I personally think that it is a breach of Human Rights. I can always get married in India and make my way into Britain again before my visa expires in December this year, but I have real doubts if I would do any justice to either of us. I wanted to secure a career on my own merits, maybe the solution really lies in going back home.

I have finally reached the conclusive part of my blog. My sincere and honest advice to any non-EU national coming to the UK is to have a clear and concise goal before coming here. You really do not want to end up in a situation like mine. If all you want is to gain the experience of being an international student and then go back home after your studies then it is probably worth coming here. But if you want to come here with the hope of gaining employment through the new International Graduate Scheme, your odds are low. You might want to spend a little more and go to the US or Australia where you might stand a much better chance of securing a promising future for yourself.

Experiences of an international student in the UK

Do you really want to be an international student in the UK?