The Educational Consultancy Association of Nepal (ECAN), the apex organisation of educational consultancies, has on Thursday said the decision of the British government to stop visas and suspend over 100 colleges in the UK could wreck havoc with the future of 4,000 Nepali students.

"The UK government's decision to stop accepting student visa applications temporarily under Points Based System -- Tier 4 has also put the tuition fees of 4,000 students amounting to Rs. 2 billion at risk," ECAN president Uttam Prasad Pant said while speaking at a program held in the capital.

The UK government from Feb. 1 had stopped accepting student visa applications temporarily under Points Based System -- Tier 4 citing an unnaturally high number of visa applications from Nepal and North India.

Around 10,000 Nepali students have already left to study in UK colleges while 22,500 have received "no objection" letters from the Ministry of Education.

Around 2,000 students have already sent bank drafts of 4,000 pounds each as tuition fee to colleges in the UK.

According to Pant, the ECAN will submit a memorandum to the prime minister, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education, the British Embassy and the British Council to solve the issue at the soonest.

ECAN has also formed a three-member coordinating committee with a view of solving the problems of students, parents and education consultancies.

We will also hire an international lawyer to look into the matter, added Pant.