1. A narrative of how the University of Bedfordshire unfairly mistreated, international students. This is my own experience. It relates to fees charged my class of 2006 to 2009. You all have the same experience or different ones. Please, take time to relate your own experience in the petition statement box up to 1000 words. 2. It was only recently that the University of Bedfordshire celebrated after scooping a top award for its international student recruitment at a glittering awards ceremony in London. It won the highly prestigious Times Higher Education Leadership and Management award for the Outstanding Student Recruitment Team. 3. Questions have never been asked as to how the university treated those international students afterwards. The University represents the ambivalence of the UK government policies towards International students – a one-dimensional view of international student as people who can be sold a service and not cared for even when they are vulnerable and stranded overseas. 4. Take for example my experience with fees at the University of Bedfordshire: Issues of Fees 5. Fees are advertised at a different rate and when students arrive here they find out after the first year that they have been deceived, misled. A different and exorbitant tuition fee is imposed arbitrarily without prior notice to the students. 6. I joined the university in 2006 for a three years course to study law. At the time the university advertised tuition fees for this course for £7, 145:00. I chose university of Bedfordshire considering amongst other things such as its location outside London and at same time its access to London, in addition to the lower cost of living in Luton and its lower tuition fee rate then. 7. I paid £7, 145:00 in the first year. In the second year as a returning student I went to finance office to pay for the second year and was told that there is a new tuition fees of £7, 800:00. I resented this. (I wrote an article in the university’s Law Societies magazine against this). And then in the final year the fees were extended to £8,000.00. 8. Some students received offer letters which indicated that “normal Duration: 3 years fee (per year): £7,145” yet were forced to pay a reversed fees. It took their complaints, resistance and the intervention of then Registrar before the students where refunded the excess monies they paid to the University. Yet the rest of the other students were not refunded. 9. The students who finished immediately before 2006 when we joined enjoyed a fee freeze throughout their studies fees where never increased. We have a legitimate expectation that ours will be the same. 10. If you are one of the students that paid these excessive fees please indicate and append your signature as we are bound to recover the said overpayment from the University. You will also append your signature while stating your other experiences. Objectives: 11. We intend to force the University to refund these students the sums of £1, 500:00 respectively with interest for unlawful enrichment. Part of the idea is to canvass for better treatment of international students. We intend to go public if the University fail to reverse their decision through adverse publication in major media. We may also send complaint to the House of Parliament, Office of Fair Trading, to International Students and UKCISA (UK Council for International Student Affairs). 12. We would not stop there if the University of Bedfordshire refuse to refund this money. We will mount international boycott campaign of the University in our various. 13. Please, it is your responsibility to forward this petition to as many students as you know and encourage everyone you forward to, to also forward to any students they know. 14. You do not have to be an international student nor 2006 – 2009 class to make a contribution or support our course. All you need do is to append your signature in support and explain in a few lines your reasons. 15. I have personally engaged the University in long drawn legal battle over this issue and it is ongoing. This is aimed at bringing more pressure to bear against the University to refund the students. We aim to collect as many signatures as possible It is ultimately for a good course. Kevin Okeke

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