Wondering why so many Bahujan students must run fundraisers to gather fees for their foreign studies? The barriers that a lower caste Indian must cross to study at abroad is extremely high. From my experience of applying to UK colleges/scholarships, I discovered the following 👇
1. English proficiency: IELTS or TOEFL are expensive examinations(Rs.15k per attempt) which are compulsory to clear for admission at all UK universities. The examination isn't easy for someone schooled at a vernacular medium as there are marks for "speaking"
Just to put into perspective: It's very common to see students from Africa get scholarships and conditional college offers that they must give up because they can't clear IELTS which means one does have unfair advantage over others only due to access to English medium schools.
2. College admission applications need two references from professors/employers. It's common to see upper caste people use their caste networks to get references from people who are big names but hardly are aware of the candidate's work
3. The need of graduation certificates: the burden of generational poverty, pulls lower castes Indians out of schools early in life, let alone reaching till graduation. College reservations don't help if one cant complete schooling.
4. "CV and work exp": In a time when jobs/internships are less and unemployment high, an English speaking UC Indian can atleast find a content writing job if nothing else or manage internships through family connections. Difficult to fill your CV that easily if you are Bahujan.
5. India offers very few scholarships for foreign studies and scholarships by UK govt are ''merit" based instead of needs based. In India, merit is linked to social capital.
The most average students from upper castes still end up with a degree from a private college thanks to generational wealth. These "meritorious" facilities aren't available to Bahujans.
6. No everyone bags a Chevening/Commonwealth/Felix/Inlaks scholarship. So they must take loans anyhow for which they have to show some collateral.(Education loans without collateral hardly cover a two years degree abroad comfortably). We know who has more "collateral" in India.
Added costs:
1. Filling an admission form of a foreign university costs atleast Rs. 7-8k. I applied at 8 colleges to bag only four offers, spending Rs.70-80k only in this process.
2. Travel and Visa costs
3. Living expenses of 60-80k rent a month for one person.
1. Filling an admission form of a foreign university costs atleast Rs. 7-8k. I applied at 8 colleges to bag only four offers, spending Rs.70-80k only in this process.
2. Travel and Visa costs
3. Living expenses of 60-80k rent a month for one person.
@CheveningFCDO @FCDOGovUK requesting you to take social contexts into consideration and see if concession can be made on any of the levels.
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