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One browse over published speeches, YouTube caption videos, studio reference recordings, and digital presenters. Twenty-five clips per page. Unpublished and unlabelled rows stay out.
Page 20 of 145 · 3622 clips · 25 per page
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
Aw said activists want to discover the reason for the disproportionate number of denials. Only about one in 10 European students were denied visas in 2023, for example.
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
One concern, Aw said, is to make certain those who review visa applications “are fully trained in the way they make determinations (for student visas).”
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
She wants to be sure African students are considered in the same way as students from other parts of the world. In addition, she asked for more student visa appointments
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
Aw said many students who want to come to the U.S. get discouraged and turn to education in other countries.
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
“Word goes around, ‘Don’t bother, because you’re never going to make it,’” Aw said. “And that is not the message any of us want to see.”
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
But it shouldn't be because they couldn't get here (the U.S.).” She noted that education programs “build bridges” as students go on to international jobs and make connections with…
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
Aw also noted that, as education systems improve around the world, students have more choices. U.S.
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
officials told VOA that international students are very important, or a top priority. They added that all visa applications are processed on their individual merits and under U.S.
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
immigration law. Leon Fresco is an immigration lawyer in Washington, D.C.
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
Fresco said he wants to know more “about this weird African disparity He said he wants more people to know about it to, in his words, “start the process of fixing it.”
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
Both Fresco and Aw suggested that U.S. government officials are not up to date on the quality of students aiming to study in the U.S.
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
“In the case of Africa and India,” Aw said, “…most of these students are graduate students who are coming for (science) and (business) fields, areas that are very much needed and…
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
“We want to make sure there’s an understanding that Africa and African countries are changing rapidly and that we’re not keeping, you know, preconceived notions or outdated notion…
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
In an email to VOA, a representative from the State Department said its Education USA program aims to help Africans attend U.S. colleges.
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
But, as more students are interested in studying in the U.S., the percentage of visa denials will increase.
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
It also noted that more Africans received student visas in 2023 than ever before.
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
Countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Eswatini, Ivory Coast and Madagascar have had more student visas approved than at any time in the past 20
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
years. Compared to 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a 61 percent increase in approved student visas among those countries.
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
Aw said her group sees progress. She gave the example that students no longer need to have in-person interviews in order to renew their visas.
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
And students can also apply for visa renewal without traveling to their home country. A group of American lawmakers wrote a letter earlier this year to U.S.
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
Secretary of State Antony Blinken. They said that educational exchange is an important part of international diplomacy.
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
“It is critical that foreign students from Africa are treated similarly to foreign students from other parts of the world.
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
There should be no reason that the State Department data should reflect such disparities among similarly situated countries,” the letter read.
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
And, as Aw noted, the results that come from students having a good experience in the U.S. last for years.
- Public domaingeneral-american
Activists Want US to Re-think Student Visa Policies for Africans
She said: “If we have a generation of students who are denied access to an education here in the U.S., that’s a generation that…will have missed out in building friendships, bridg…
Source badges: Public domain · Creator video · Digital presenter · Reference recording. Literary passages are public domain. Studio notes are not spoken in the audio.