Nigerian Student Sues Finnish University For Racism

A fifty-year-old Nigerian medical student, Emmanuel Eneh has sued the medical faculty at the University of Tampere, Finland, for withholding his medical licentiate degree. Eneh was told that his study programme had expired when he failed his final exam after the 17 attempt last autumn.
Now a Finnish citizen, Eneh had been studying medicine in Tampere for more than 20 years. A period during which he had received 378 study credits, 18 credits higher than the 360 credits required to get a medical licentiate degree in Finland.

According to Eneh, one reason for his problem at the university is his skin colour. Speaking to court investigators, he said, “It’s just not possible. I was about to graduate and become a doctor. I can’t start all over again. This is an outrageous decision, it’s pure racism.”
Eneh is not alone in the racism allegation as two former professors in the university also support his claims. One of the professors, Antti Hervonen , had this to say: “This is a blonde-haired blue-eyed faculty, and it’s very rare to see anything else.” The Professor, who had taught at the faculty until last year during the time that Eneh studied there said that in his opinion, there was no intellectual deficiency in Eneh’s case. According to him, “the issue is racism.”

Another former Tampere university professor currently lecturing at the University of Tallinn, Tero Autio also arrived at a similar conclusion. “I have worked in universities all over the continent. This is a very unique case, and I hope the authorities wake up,” Autio said.
According to the Silminnäkijä programme, Eneh had completed on-the-job training at many hospitals during his course of studies.
Autio had earlier written to the university on Eneh’s behalf in 2010, citing that medical authorities interviewed at two of the hospitals in Kaivanto and Valkeakoski where Eneh did his housemanship had stated that he performed his duties in much the same way as other trainees. However, the meeting convened to discuss the case was inconclusive.
Before coming to Finland to study, Eneh had completed two degrees in his home country: one in microbiology and another in theology. He was admitted to study in Finland without completing the entrance exam as a quota student. The Ministry of Education allowed the faculty of medicine to admit 1 – 2 students annually from developing countries into the medical licentiate programme.
Efforts to get comments from the medical faculty proved abortive as the management would not comment on the case since it is currently before the courts.