MSA-UK Central Committee 2007 (CC) met with Mr. Adam Hassan, the Deputy High Commissioner of the Maldives, on 11th Feb 2007 at his home in London to discuss some urgent matters that students have raised.

The main issue that was discussed was the growing difficulty in obtaining the UK Student Visa.  Students from the Maldives currently are required to travel to the British Visa office in Sri Lanka, lodge their application and wait for a period anywhere from 5 to 14 days. The costs of doing so increases if a member has a spouse and/or children to bring along as they too are required to go to the Visa office in person. Upon urging from members, previous Central Committees have continued to raise the issue several times with various government authorities and CC 2007 joins this effort in hopes of finding a solution as quick as possible. The Deputy High Commissioner assured us that it was an issue that had been raised to the High Commission as well and that they were in talks with the relevant government authorities. He also mentioned that they would raise the issue at a soon-to-be-held meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The second point of discussion that was raised by the CC was the renovation efforts for Rosemont. The CC informed Mr. Adam Hassan of the results of last year’s renovation effort and the recommendations from the Rosemont report. The CC then outlined the urgently needed renovations still needing to be done at Rosemont and raised the issue of securing funds for doing so. The Deputy High Commissioner recommended that MSA-UK request the Ministry of Education with a list of needed repair.

The Central Committee then sought suggestions and recommendations on various activities for the year including the GoTeach project and the fund raising activities being planned.
We wholeheartedly thank Mr. Adam Hassan for taking time out on a Sunday afternoon to meet us. We hope that he and the High Commission would be able to provide some assistance on the matters that were discussed.