Nigerian PhD student awarded compensation in ‘landmark’ UK case

A Nigerian PhD student whose doctoral studies were halted by illness and a breakdown in relations with her supervisor has been awarded £5,000 after her university admitted mishandling parts of her complaint.

Sue Agazie will also receive a tuition fee refund of £13,286 from Newcastle University, where she was enrolled on a PhD in marketing, on top of the £5,000 awarded for distress and inconvenience.

The Russell Group university has also agreed to waive rent arrears totalling £5,521 as a “goodwill gesture”, according to the migrant student action group Unis Resist Border Controls (URBC), which has supported Ms Agazie since she launched her complaint in February.

Ms Agazie, who moved with her husband and child to Newcastle in January 2023, alleged she had enrolled on the PhD at Newcastle University Business School on the understanding that she was likely to receive a full scholarship for her studies or would gain enough part-time academic work to cover her living costs.

Yet the funding or paid work did not materialise, causing her to run up considerable debts. Amid a breakdown in relations with her primary supervisor, Ms Agazie was diagnosed with kidney failure in September 2023. Requiring medical treatment in the UK to stay alive, she claimed the business school’s decision to contact the Home Office over her immigration status – which the university says it was legally obliged to do – had caused her additional stress.

In what URBC described as a “landmark admission of responsibility to and dereliction of care for a disabled international student”, two parts of Ms Agazie’s claim have been partially upheld – in relation to failings in PhD supervision, and how the university corresponded with her regarding payment of tuition fees and accommodation while she was ill.

According to an excerpt provided to Times Higher Education, the university admitted that there was “clearly a breakdown in the supervisor/supervisee relationship” that happened “during the period when there was not a second supervisor in the supervisory team”.

It also notes the “pressure you will have faced trying to meet your tuition fee payment responsibilities in addition to the demands to pay for your accommodation, and acknowledge that this will have contributed to the anxiety you will have been facing”.

In its ruling addressed to Ms Agazie, Newcastle concedes that “although the committee found that the university had followed correct procedures in handling your personal circumstances, seeking to redress your outstanding financial requirements and provided you with support from colleagues in Student Health and Wellbeing, they recognise that receiving separate financial communications from tuition fee teams and accommodation at a similar time was regrettable”.

In conclusion, the committee offers “their apologies on behalf of the university for any additional anxiety this may have caused you” and “recommends that the university emails requesting outstanding payments should be reviewed to be more compassionate and inclusive”.

However, the student complaint ruling found there were “no procedural irregularities in the offer of PhD study at Newcastle, where there was no scholarship attached to the offer of PhD study, nor in the processes followed in managing your studies, with the exception of the delay in replacing a second experienced supervisor for your supervisory team”.

Commenting on the ruling, Ms Agazie said: “While I am glad that Newcastle University admitted their wrongdoings, I hope that other international students can learn from my case and stand up against the weaponisation of their student visas by their universities and demand fair treatment that they are entitled to.”

According to official statistics, Nigeria is the UK’s third largest source of international students behind China and India with about 44,000 studying in 2021-22, mostly at postgraduate level. However, the collapse in value of Nigeria’s naira – which depreciated more than 200 per cent against the dollar in the 12 months up to May – has left many Nigerian students in the UK in serious financial difficulties.

Sanaz Raji, founder of URBC, which supported Ms Agazie’s claim alongside solicitors Gold Jennings, said the case illustrated the “heightened precarity that international students experience, particularly if they are minoritised and disabled”.

“Throughout my research,” added Ms Raji, a visiting researcher at Northumbria University, “it is becoming clear how border controls via the hostile environment policy, which has been in place for over 12 years, create a number of extreme barriers, especially for migrant students to launch complaints without having their student visa weaponised by the university against them, meaning that they are forced to leave the UK while their university complaint is ongoing”.

Student visas were being “weaponised” by universities, continued Ms Raji, who claimed the threat of deportation both “prevents migrant students who might be in abusive arrangements from complaining for fear of being forced out of their courses”.

“It also leads to a failure in complaints being heard within a reasonable time without the student being forced to leave the UK without a decision made,” she added.

Ms Agazie, who has left the university, is now fighting to remain in the UK and has submitted an application for leave to remain outside the rules under compassionate medical grounds for herself and her dependents.

A Newcastle University spokesperson said: “We are unable to comment on individual cases, however, all student complaints are investigated thoroughly in line with our procedures which can lead to a number of outcomes, including reimbursement of fees.”

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com