Law student Parsa Sadat of the University of Reading is among those Iranians who risk being unable to graduate, and possibly having their student visa removed, because they are unable to pay tuition fees.
The 23-year-old’s family has the money but he has been unable to get it out of Iran because money transfers from the country have been targeted by US sanctions.
The university has told him that the “only viable option” is for him to travel home to Tehran over Christmas and return with the £5,350 tuition fees payment in cash for the next term.
An email from a senior university offical said: “This should hopefully provide you with sufficient time to bring the money back from Iran after the Christmas break. If payment is not received by this date, you would be suspended from your course.”
Sadat said he had received at least six warnings telling him that he is liable to be suspended, most recently on 5 December. The student is in his final year and has already paid £30,600 to cover his first two years. “I am not in a unique position. One of the other students has his parents coming and bringing in cash. They’re hitting ordinary people. It’s basically an economic blockade,” he said.
It is unclear how many students are affected by the sanctions but the Iranian Association, based in London, described their plight as really sad.
Sadat’s tutor, Mai Sato, associate professor in criminology, said: “Even if the funds for the flight and fees can be raised, requiring Parsa to transport large amounts of cash within and from a country classified by the Foreign Office as a high-risk country, exposes the university to justifiable criticism. Parsa himself feels that carrying several thousand pounds in cash is dangerous.
The university has an opportunity here to be seen to take a stand against a clear injustice that flows directly from President Trump’s policy towards Iran.”
The Labour MP for Reading East, Matt Rodda, has written to the university, saying: “Parsa is a victim of forces beyond his control. I would request that you consider flexibility on the receipt of his third-year fees – if only on compassionate grounds.”
Maziar Bahari, the editor of IranWire.com, said the US sanctions were affecting hundreds of Iranian university students in the UK and that some had started using cryptocurrencies in an attempt to circumvent the banking restrictions.
“They are using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in order to get money,” he said.
Bahari said that a friend had recently told him that “many” University of Cambridge students are struggling to get UK bank accounts due to the sanctions.
A statement from the university said: “We recognise that this student is facing exceptional circumstances and are monitoring the situation. We are working with him to try to resolve this issue.”
Source: The Guardian