‘We are sorry to inform you…’: Indian students in UK struggle to get jobs after spending lakhs on ‘rip-off’ degrees

Like Nisha, there are several other Indian students who have had to return to India after pursuing a degree in the UK. Reason: Despite spending over £10,000 for a Masters degree or more for an undergraduate degree, they are struggling to bag a full-time job in the UK.

As per data collected by the Office for Students (OfS), three in 10 graduates are unable to get a highly skilled job. The UK government has also instructed OfS to ensure that courses that fail to convert students into employees should be subject to stricter controls.

Poor quality course leads to no job

This was also recently brought to light by the UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. “The UK is home to some of the best universities in the world and studying for a degree can be immensely rewarding. But too many young people are being sold a false dream and end up doing a poor-quality course at the taxpayers’ expense that doesn’t offer the prospect of a decent job at the end of it,” he said.

Sunak has also pointed out that too many students are being asked to enroll for foundation year — an additional year of study that acts as a bridge course for degrees with specific entry requirements. The UK government has advised that the maximum fee for foundation year courses should be reduced from £9,250 to £5,760 (Rs 6 lakh approximately).

“Young people from India are being sold dreams of high employability in this country that just don’t exist anymore. But we work with the majority of UK higher educational institutions to provide students with employability support, and it isn’t the quality of education that is preventing them from access to gainful employment,” said Tripti Maheshwari, director and co-founder at Student Circus — a job search portal for international students in the UK — and a UK graduate.

Shrey Upadhyay, who completed his MSc Business Management in Sport from De Montfort University, Leicester, was unable to find a job in the UK “even though the UK is known for being a sports-fanatic country,” he shares.

“I was working with a local sports coaching company in the UK as an intern, and even though the employer liked my work, they were unable to offer me a full-time job as they do not have sponsorship rights. The only solution we found in this situation was for me to work for them as a consultant from India,” he added.

Towards the end of their degree, students start hunting for jobs. However, receiving rejection emails is becoming common. “My course was 18 months long and I had a six months extended visa. I applied to over 200 jobs but didn’t get anything more than the standard automated reply. It really affected me as I was wondering what was I doing wrong but then a friend who was an HR told me that the companies weren’t hiring people for whom they have to sponsor visas,” remembers Siddhi Dolas, who pursued an MA in Fashion Media Production, Communication and Media Studies from London College of Fashion, University of Arts London.

Agreeing with Dolas, Nisha* added: “I was applying for nearly 25-30 jobs based in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a few other places. So imagine getting rejections from different time zones. I woke up with ‘we are sorry to inform you’ and went to sleep reading that too.”

‘Light at the end of the tunnel’

However, there are some students who have seen the light at the end of the tunnel. Jaipur’s Akshat Vashistha received two offers after applying to nearly 500 companies and spending nearly Rs 45 lakh on his MSc in Financial Analysis and Fund Management degree at the University of Exeter.

“My course ends on September 1 and after applying to nearly 500 places and facing rejections from most of them, I have secured offers from an investment management company— Invesco — and the other company is JLL,” he said.

The process has been difficult as one tends to lose hope after facing so many rejections, he further said. In addition to it, the job market is not great due to the economic downfall. “I used to apply through LinkedIn and Indeed. Sometimes I received replies, mostly nothing at all. Even if you get an interview call there are multiple rounds— a recorded interview, followed by an interview with the team then a technical interview then an interview with the HR and team and finally the call letter and offer. But, I believe if you don’t give up you will succeed eventually,” Akshat said.

Technical jargon — the end of international students’ dreams

When asked what discourages employers from hiring international students, some believe that it is technical jargon, while others believe it is cost-cutting. Speaking from experience, Siddhi added that one of the reasons she did not find a job in the UK was the fact that “it was right after Covid-19 and the economy was still recuperating” which led to a lot of companies concentrating on cost-cutting.

“I think one major reason why employers shy away from hiring international students as full-time workers is that they have this misconception that the paperwork is too complicated. The reality, however, is that it is not that tough. So it really is just the technical jargon which acts as a hurdle in this process,” Shrey explained.

“One of the biggest gaps we see in the employability landscape for international students is the lack of employer awareness around the ways in which they can work with international graduates. The Graduate Route, for example, was introduced so employers can work with international talent without having to sponsor them for 2-3 years. But HEPI revealed that less than 3 per cent of the employers have made use of the route. On one hand, there is a skills shortage in certain sectors, on the other hand, international graduates are not being embedded smoothly in the workforce,” Tripti explained.

Suneet Singh Kochar, Co-founder and CEO of Fateh Education, advises students to look for the critical skills shortage list put up by the government of the UK in the public domain. Kochar advised students to do their research, and consider what is happening in the world right now, rather than following historical trends.

“There’s a critical skills shortage, which means there are a lot of positions available. That means you still need to fight for them, but there are opportunities available. Students should look at the futuristic courses. People should look at what’s happening in the world, in the UK, and in India as well, and see where the economy is headed, where the country is headed, and what kind of demand comes in. If the demand for AI is going up, that means there would be more AI professionals needed,” he said.

Is a UK degree worth it?

What’s interesting is that when asked if the money they spent was worth the experience, a lot of these students answered in the affirmative. “The things I learnt, the experience I gained are all completely worth the money I spent on the tuition fee for the course. If I see it solely in the financial/job scenario, I have my doubts, but in no sense would I say that it was unjustified,” Shrey said.

Some others such as Akshat and Siddhi also fondly remembered their time in the UK and agreed that the experience they earned in the UK is something they might not have got in India. “It makes you independent. Having a global experience with people from multiple nationalities gives you a global outlook and of course, the opportunities that study abroad provides are endless, whether it is professionally or personally. The exposure you get over here is not something you will get anywhere,” Akshat said.

However, Rittika Mittal, who completed her LLM degree in the UK didn’t agree with others and said the money she spent on her degree didn’t seem to be worth it as “what I got was just exposure.” The six month extension around Covid was a waste as I was trapped in the house the whole time and it wasn’t any good,” she told indianexpress.com.

*Name changed on request