In light of the recent decision of United States officials to freeze visas for international students President of the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce, Dillon Knowles is advising students to seek higher education elsewhere.

He told ZNS News, “plan B may be going to other jurisdictions for education. I personally went to school in Canada. Partly at the time because the Canadian dollar was such that it was more economically beneficial for me to go to school in Canada. When we were a colonial country lots of Bahamians went to school in Great Britain.”

Knowles also spoke highly of the University of The Bahamas as an option for students seeking tertiary education. He said, “we’ve also built our own capacity, our educational capacity in The Bahamas with the University of The Bahamas. So I don’t think that we should be wedded to wanting to go to school in the US. There are advantages to going to school in the US but I don’t think it’s the end of the world if we don’t go to school in the US.”

The Chamber President advised students to remain hopeful that US President Trump will reverse his decision. “He does have a habit of reversing course and there is still time between now and September for him to reverse course on this. So we’re hopeful that he does and that it does not become a game of cat and mouse.”