Nigerian students now make up the third-largest international cohort, after China and India, in the United Kingdom (UK) universities, from roughly 11,000 students in the 2017-18 academic year to more than 44,000 in 2021-22. This represents a 300 per cent increase in three years.
However, many of the international students attending British institutions are Chinese nationals who pay a high price for their education in the UK. Nonetheless, British institutions are aiming to increase their overseas student population in light of China’s crackdown on international education and the country’s stagnant economy. Africa’s largest economies are the next frontiers. The UK is pushing to diversify the sources of its international students, Nos Gbadamosi, journalist and writer of Foreign Policy Africa Brief stated in her report.
Even more concerning is the fact that a third of foreign money originates from China, a nation whose government has repeatedly threatened to reduce student immigration in reaction to criticism and whose business relationships with UK institutions are coming under more scrutiny.
These concerns have brought changes that have had an impact on both primary and secondary education in Africa. Private educational institutions have grown internationally after the Chinese economic boom ended. International schools in Africa used to appeal to the children of diplomats and other expats, but now they mostly target affluent locals, especially in Nigeria and Egypt, the continent’s two largest economies.
This change has had an impact on both primary and secondary education in Africa. Private educational institutions have grown internationally after the Chinese economic boom ended. International schools in Africa used to appeal to the children of diplomats and other expats, but now they mostly target affluent locals, especially in Nigeria and Egypt, the continent’s two largest economies.
On the continent, private British education is growing swiftly. King’s College Schools is to open a new campus in Cairo in September, and Uppingham School intends to follow in 2024 with its own Cairo location. After years of hosting Nigerian students to its campus in the UK, Charterhouse will open its first African campus in Lagos, Nigeria. The company characterises this move as a “logical step.” Regional organisations run these schools, and they compensate the linked British school with royalties.
Elite private schools in Nigeria charge yearly enrollment fees that range from $10,000 to $32,000. In Nigeria, the typical yearly wage is only $8,000.
In order to develop relationships with regional private schools and “understand what parents are seeking for,” the UK foreign trade department organised a trip to Lagos in January for representatives from more than 20 British private boarding schools.
According to estimates in a 2021 Carnegie report, West African elites spend more than $37 million on the UK education industry each year. Some leaders in UK higher education have expressed concern that suggested restrictions on student visas would amount to “economic self-harm.”
