The move will affect
thousands of foreign students including Nigerians who travelled to the United
States to attend universities or participate in training programmes, as well as
non-academic or vocational studies.
PREMIUM TIMES
reported how the Cultural Affairs Officer of the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, Malia
Heroux, said one-third of African students studying in the U.S. are Nigerians.
She said about 13,000
Nigerians and 39,000 Africans go to study in the USA yearly.
Universities
worldwide are beginning to make the decision to transition to online courses as
a result of the coronavirus pandemic. For example, at Harvard, all course
instruction will be delivered online, including for students living on campus.
According to CNN,
the ICE, in a news release, said that students who fall under certain visas
“may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States.”
Students on F-1 and
M-1 visas who face such a situation “must depart the country or take other
measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction to remain
in lawful status,” the ICE said in the news release.
The statement also
said the U.S. Department of State will not issue visas to students enrolled in
schools and/or programs that are fully online for the fall semester nor will
U.S. Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the United
States.
The agency suggested
that students currently enrolled in the U.S. consider other measures, like
transferring to schools with in-person instruction. There’s an exception for
universities using a hybrid model, such as a mix of online and in-person
classes.
New guidelines
The vice president
of the American Council on Education, Brad Farnsworth, said the announcement
caught him and many others by surprise.
“We think this is
going to create more confusion and more uncertainty,” said Mr Farnsworth, whose
organisation represents about 1,800 colleges and universities. “What we were
hoping to see was more appreciation for all the different possible nuances that
campuses will be exploring,” CNN quoted him as saying.
Mr Farnsworth said
one concern with the new guidance, is what would happen if the public health
situation deteriorates in the fall and universities that had been offering
in-person classes feel they have to shift all courses online to stay safe.
The director of
immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, Theresa
Cardinal Brown, said visa requirements for students have always been strict and
coming to the U.S. to take online-only courses has been prohibited.
“These are not some
fly-by-night universities, these aren’t scams, these are legit universities who
would normally have in-person curricula but for coronavirus,” she said.
“The bigger issue is
some of these countries have travel restrictions on and they can’t go home, so
what do they do then?” she said.
According to the
Migration Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington, DC, about 1.2
million students who fall under the affected visas were enrolled and registered
at more than 8,700 schools nationwide as of March 2018.
Last month, the
White House issued an immigration proclamation dramatically curtailing legal
immigration to the US sending hundreds of people and businesses into a scramble
to understand whether their future plans are derailed.
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