Three international students are facing deportation after an alleged technical glitch at their university meant they did not get a final grade.
The students claim they had all tried to submit their exams ahead of the deadline given by Coventry university, but they received an error message and were unable to upload their assessments. The university claims there is no evidence of a technical problem with its system.
Despite the university’s offer to allow them the possibility of being able to sit a retake, they say they are likely to face the choice between leaving the UK without a degree or being deported due to a looming visa expiry date.
The reason their situation is so desperate is that international students are required to obtain a degree before they can apply for a graduate visa.
Twins Umair and Uzair Kanasro, 24, and Fahim Aurakzai, 25, are on student visas which they say are due to expire before they can benefit from the university’s appeals process.
The twins came to England from Pakistan to study a one-year master’s in structural engineering, which costs £16,950 for international students.
The only way they could extend their student visas is by applying for graduate visas, which technically they cannot do until they have their degrees.
Umair said: “This last semester has been a nightmare for us.”
The twins and Aurakzai were resitting a four-hour exam remotely on 10 August. They began the exam at 6pm and had until 10pm to upload their papers to the university system, Aula.
Documents seen by the Observer show Umair’s paper was last saved about 15 minutes before the deadline, and he says he tried to upload it immediately afterwards. Uzair added: “We completed our exams well before the time and [they were] only 2MB files, so it should not have taken long.
“I completed my paper 12 or 13 minutes before the deadline and I tried to upload it but the link was continuously loading.”
A screenshot of the examinations portal, taken shortly after 10pm, shows an error message which reads “cannot upload submission”. The candidates claim they tried to upload their files prior to the deadline.
They all contacted their module coordinator shortly after the deadline to explain the situation and asked for their papers to be marked, but correspondence with the university seen by the Observer shows they were directed to an appeals process, which would mean having to resit the exam.
To add to their woes, student visa holders also cannot work more than 20 hours per week, leaving them at a disadvantage when applying for jobs.
“It has been so hard for us”, Fahim, also of Pakistan, said. “I cannot do anything, I cannot even think, sleep or eat. I cannot focus on anything.”
Inam Raziq, an immigration adviser with Fast Track Global Consultants, who is representing the students, described their situation as a “computer says no” problem. “We are unclear why a technical failure by the university has penalised these students, and they are having to suffer the consequences.”
Raziq pointed out that even if the students appealed successfully, which can take up to 12 weeks, Coventry’s next resit date is not until December, with the results due back after the students’ visas expire at the start of January.
“This is the catch”, Raziq said. “Coventry university does not understand this point or is ignoring this point on purpose.”
International students must leave the UK by the expiry date of their visa, or risk becoming an “overstayer”, which is a criminal offence and can result in deportation and difficulties in travelling to the UK in future.
Fizza Qureshi, the CEO of the Migrants’ Rights Network, said: “The manner in which these students have been treated for a fault they are neither responsible for, nor have control over, is frankly shocking.
A Coventry university spokesperson said they could not comment on active investigations or individual cases, but added: “We have found no evidence of outages on our systems on 10 August.
“The overwhelming majority of our students uploaded their assessments on time, without issue.
“We have tried-and-tested, fair processes for dealing with missed deadlines and there is an academic appeals process which all of our students can access These processes allow for and ensure compliance with UK visa rules.
“Our international students are made aware of our regulations and their obligations upon enrolment.”
