By Peter Onyekachukwu 
By Peter Onyekachukwu
Many Nigerian students in the United Kingdom are in panic following fresh migration rules by the UK government threatening to remove thousands of international students whose visas are expiring.
According to the UK Home Office, about 10,000 foreign students have already been contacted to leave the country as their study visas run out. The government said the move followed a surge in asylum claims by students and other temporary visa holders, which tripled in the past year.
Statistics show that international students accounted for 40% of all asylum applications in the year ending June 2025, making them the largest group of claimants. Nigerians remain the third largest group of foreign students in the UK, with more than 34,500 studying in British universities and colleges in 2023/24.
Some Nigerian students told Sunday Punch they had switched to skilled worker visas to avoid deportation, while others are struggling to secure legal options before their papers expire. “People are panicking because UK laws keep changing,” a PhD student in Scotland said. “If you cannot secure a work visa or another category, once your student visa expires, you automatically become an illegal immigrant.”
The new policy also shortens the post-study work visa from two years to 18 months and bars fresh student visa holders from switching directly to a skilled worker visa after July 22, 2025.
Experts are divided on the move. Some immigration analysts say it is part of the UK’s strategy to reduce net migration, while Nigerian academics have condemned the approach as “exploitative,” accusing Britain of using African students as cash cows before discarding them.
Meanwhile, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) has advised students to respect the terms of their visas and avoid overstaying. Its spokesperson, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, warned: “The moment your visa expires, it becomes a criminal offence to stay there.”