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I have seen different videos of students in the UK complaining about life in the UK. I have tried to look the other way, but I think some people may be truly ignorant about coming to the UK using the student route.
My post may well benefit those who really don’t understand what they are getting into so they can save themselves the stress of opening the book of Lamentations on YouTube and other social media platforms.
I think some people lied to themselves when they moved to the UK on a student visa.
Most people relocating to the UK are well aware they are expected to have at least nine months of their living expenses as the 20 hours work permit can only cater for basic expenses.
Coming to the UK on a student visa is not cheap. Most cheap schools charge an average of £12,000. High-end schools cost between £16,000 – £25,000.
Now if you are fortunate to get the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) exchange rate of ₦580 to a pound, then your school fees should cost around ₦6,960,000, that’s about ₦7 million for tuition alone.
If you don’t get the CBN rate, then tuition should be about ₦11.5 million. This is for just tuition fees.
The UK expects you to show that you have at least £1,334 per month for nine months if you are studying in London, i.e. £12,006 ~ ₦6.9 million.
If you are studying outside London you need £1,023 times nine months, i.e £9,207 ~ ₦5.3 million. You are expected to have these funds to sustain yourself I’m the UK.
In addition to the fees and living costs, you need to pay £363 for the visa fee and an international health surcharge (IHS) which costs £470 per year, but because your student visa is typically for a year and four months, it is prorated, so you might end up paying about £800 or more for IHS.
So that’s another £1,200 cost which you will source from the black market as there’s no CBN provision for this. So for visa and IHS budget, another ₦1.2 million.
If we add tuberculosis test, flight, and miscellaneous expenses while processing your visa, you are likely to spend another ₦500,000 if you book your flight in advance.
Some people spent up to a million naira for the flight alone.
“Japa and new dispensation” is not cheap. If we do the math, an average tuition fee is ₦7 million + ₦5.3 million (living costs) + ₦1.2 million (Visa/IHS) + ₦500,000 (flight & miscellaneous) = ₦14 million. By the way, these are just estimates. You may pay less if you get cheap schools in some locations with fewer economic activities. The location of your place of study is very important, but this is a story for another day.
@ Fidelis
