A Nigerian student, Josephine Lawal, has demanded a refund of the tuition she paid for amounting to 20,000 pounds after she accused a UK varsity of racism.
She has registered for a PhD programmer at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, United Kingdom and has never graduated despite claim she has finished her course work and thesis.
Lawal started doubting the credibility of the institution when the university manager later offered to give her a master’s certificate which the Nigerian girl rejected as that is not the programmer she had registered for.
Lawal enrolled for her PhD in 2012 where she wanted to pursue research in viral marketing. She says that her topic was changed to social media marketing and the programme was scheduled to end in 2015.
Her assigned supervisor failed to attend to her for a whole year and finally after several complaints she had him changed to another one. This is something that she felt came from a place of racial discrimination as her colleagues who were white did not experience that same treatment now would a supervisor leave them unattended. For a year!
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Then came the issues with her visa where she would need renewal as the programme had dragged on longer than she expected and the university did not want to release the confirmation of Acceptance of Studies that was needed to apply for her visa.
They were later ale to apply when they showed the school management where it was written that they should have the right authorisation to stay in the country.
She finally submitted her thesis in 2016 and received no complaint.
Lawal later faced issues when it came to defending her thesis and her visa deadline was fast approaching, she needed to do it before she had to leave the country. She was in shock when the lectures said the work was below PhD standards and that she had to submit it as a masters.
The young Nigerian was also combated by the deadline as she had to come back to Nigeria. She left the UK and was to defend her thesis while home. Facing challenges in connection to carry out an online defence she was marked as absent and her project not awarded anything.
And after more complaints the school had now shut her out of their online portal. The Nigerian insisted that her ordeal bordered on racism, adding that many international students suffered the same fate and never graduated.
She took legal action to get her money back but has been warned by her lawyers that it is now her against the university
Source: University Of Waled Saint David