‘Nightmare’ for Manchester students as course ‘ends early’

A group of international students at the University of Manchester say their future plans have been ruined after they were told their courses were ending months earlier than expected.

Despite understanding their programme would run until the end of September, the cohort, from countries including Ghana, Pakistan, Mexico and the US, received an email from Manchester’s Student Service Centre on 8 July, informing the group it had “completed [its] course earlier than the course end date stated on the Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS)”.

As the CAS accreditation is used to support student visas, the university instructed the students it was “required to notify UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI)” that their studies had concluded.

The Home Office subsequently told students they could remain in the country until October.

But according to one of the seven impacted, Jesse Sanders, the cohort had been expecting to be able to remain until January 2027, as stated on their original visa and residence permits.

Sanders believes the university’s sudden curtailment of the visas relates to an issue the student immigration team had identified as early as September last year, finding that some students’ CAS and visa dates were wrong.

“It neither corrected the CAS, nor reissued it, nor informed me. The error was acted upon only in July 2026 – roughly 10 months later – and then to my detriment rather than for my correction,” Sanders writes in a complaint to the university seen by Times Higher Education (THE).

The situation, which has exposed Sanders and her peers to “the risk of immediate visa cancellation while abroad”, has also left her unable to apply for a graduate visa to remain in the country.

The seven students have been working towards their Erasmus Mundus-backed joint master’s degree in environmental sciences, policy and management (MESPOM).

The MESPOM programme lasts two years and is delivered and awarded jointly by Central European University, Vienna; the University of the Aegean in Greece; the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University; and the School of Environmental and Atmospheric Sciences at Manchester.

Sanders maintains she was informed in September 2025 by Manchester’s student immigration team: “If you successfully complete the master’s programme provided in your CAS in the UK, then you will be eligible for the graduate visa.”

But in June this year, the university appears to have reversed this position, stating that following “further discussion with colleagues in the School of Natural Sciences” it had concluded MESPOM is a single joint degree that does not meet the graduate route’s 12-month UK study requirement.

“We thought we’d have a visa until the end of January and could get a graduate visa after that – they told us for the entire year we were there that we would be eligible,” Sanders alleged.

The students are still finalising their capstone projects, she said, which they expect to complete by the end of August. She said it was “quite a shock” to hear the university considered their studies over, as she was still working on her project – investigating how to model infectious diseases in refugee camps.

Sanders claimed most of the academics she and her group were working with were also taken aback.

“Most of the professors aren’t happy about this,” she said. “They really like working with MESPOM students. It’s a highly selective programme. We’re a really good group of students; we tend to publish our research at the end.

“It seems like everyone on staff that we’ve chatted about this with is not pleased, because it also has consequences for the coming MESPOM-ers, like they won’t choose to come to Manchester.”

Sanders said the decision has also caused financial harm, including having to pay a month’s rent for a flat she will now have to vacate, and additional months of the Immigration Health Surcharge for the NHS.

Multiple students have now complained to the university, although Sanders said the process of raising their concerns felt labyrinthine.

“It’s been a bit of a nightmare,” she said. “We’ve reached out to a number of services at the university, pretty much every professor we’ve ever worked with. And they all just sort of report us to the other: have you reached out to the advice service, to the immigration team?”

A spokesperson for the University of Manchester said: “We are aware of the issues a small number of our students on the MESPOM course have been experiencing. Our focus has been on supporting affected students. The school’s student support and welfare team has been available throughout this period, and we continue to encourage students to engage with the team to receive support.”

The spokesperson continued: “CAS agreements were issued to a small number of students in summer 2025 on the basis the University of Manchester would be delivering a 12-month segment of the MESPOM programme.

“When this inaccuracy was identified, any further CAS agreements were issued for the correct period of 9 months. Both durations fully covered the period of study at the University of Manchester.

“In line with Home Office reporting requirements, the University reported MESPOM students as having completed their studies. While we acknowledge that there was a misunderstanding about the programme duration there was no re-evaluation midway through its administration.”

The university said it encouraged those affected to engage with its student complaints procedure and that it would continue to offer support.

georgia.luckhurst@timeshighereducation.com