The UK has started a new visa route for talented workers recently graduated or graduating from top 50 universities across the globe, in an apparent expansion of its post-Brexit immigration scheme.
While the new visa scheme, the UK argues, will attract top talents to aid its economic growth and innovations further, the scheme is facing criticism of being elitist and exclusionary not just for regions like India and South Asia, Latin America and Africa, but even for parts of Europe. But for top-tier economic migration, a new visa route is not enough: jobs scape, salary, living standard and work environment are equally important factors.
The UK government has announced that its new visa scheme to attract top talents to come and stay even before having a solid job offer in hand will aid brain gain and economic growth. Britain has underlined that talented graduates in areas such as science, engineering and research from internationally renowned universities are encouraged to bring their talents to the UK and drive both economic growth as well as technological and medical advances.
Experts argue that this is a work visa, not a study visa, and people need to understand that both UK and US universities are already allowing grads to work for two to three years post study. Second, if someone is from the top 50 varsities in the US, whether he or she is an Indian or American, may not like to shift to the UK, and may at least consider if it offers a better career opportunity.
Moneycontrol looks at the key takeaways from the new high potential visa scheme of the UK, will it have any impact on Indians, and is it worth all the noise?
What is the scheme?
The world’s top graduates in subjects such as science, engineering and medical research will be able to bring their skills to the UK following the launch of the new visa route targeting graduates from prestigious universities such as Harvard and MIT, according to the UK government.
The race to attract the brightest and best international talent is fierce and inviting talented individuals from international universities “will complement the pool of high achieving graduates from UK universities”.
Who can and cannot apply for such high potential visa scheme:
The new High Potential Individual route is intended to attract those at the early stages of their careers, who demonstrate exceptional promise, and aid creation of a diverse but high-end talent pool from which employers in the UK can recruit.
Security checks still apply, as does a test of English proficiency. The visas cost £715 and immigration health surcharges must be paid too. Besides, applicants must have a bank balance of £1270 (Rs 123,496) or more.
Successful applicants will be given a two-year work visa if they are graduates or post-grads from top 50 universities, and a three-year visa for those with a PhD from the same target institutions. Once the threshold period is over, they are likely to be permitted to move into other long-term employment routes.
With several UK universities in the top 50 global university league table – graduates from let’s say 37 to 40 varsities around the world can apply for it, and it is here the scheme is facing the criticism of being elitist and exclusionary. And these universities include Ivy Leagues and a few others from the US, some from Canada, Australia and less than 10 from China, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong put together.
“Graduates from these 37 top-ranked universities will be able to apply to come to the UK under a new 'high potential individual' visa scheme. None from Africa, Latin America or South Asia. That’s a big problem,” said Phil Batty, chief knowledge officer, Times Higher Education, a UK-based ranking agency that published world university league tables every year.
Will Indians be able to avail benefits of this new visa route?
Indians who have studied in India are not eligible to apply, even those who are from the top IITs and IIMs that have supplied manpower and leadership to corporations worldwide, won't qualify. Since world university ranking has been used as the parameter, it has directly excluded IITs and other top institutions from India and elsewhere. IITs are yet to make it to the top 50 world varsities list and many have argued that this is largely due to Indian institutions' traditional weakness in international outlook including foreign students and foreign faculties on their campuses.
But Indians who have studied or studying in the top 50 varsities, let’s say Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Yale, or Kyoto University (Japan), can apply for this visa.
Is it worth all the effort and noise?
It is a mixed bag. When an international student studying in one of the top 50 varsities in Japan, China, Singapore or even the US, goes to the UK for a job, he or she gets a new exposure, a new culture to work. This adds to the work profile and will be net positive, but will it worth it depends on what kind of job he or she lands and whether the lifestyle will match.
“Every country wants to attract top talent and it befits the economy. The new visa route of the UK seems to be designed to do that…Ït will not benefit Indians studying in India as we do not have varsities in the top 50 ranks but hundreds of Indians who have studied in top 50 universities elsewhere can apply and avail the benefits,” said Manjula Rao, a former executive with the British Council in India.
Rao said UK and US universities, even before the new visa scheme, have been allowing two to three years of post-study work opportunities to segments of students.
“The question, however, is how many graduates, postgraduates or doctorates from top 50 varsities outside of the UK will come? Someone in top US universities, for example, may like to stay in the US to pursue a career than come to the UK. While the intention is fine and well designed, its utilisation may be low."
The average salaries in the UK are lower than in the US, with recent graduates expecting £30,000 ($38,000) a year compared to $40,000 to $50,000 in the US, according to a recent report by news agency Bloomberg that shared the figures while quoting Glassdoor’s EMEA economist Lauren Thomas.
But the UK’s work and workspace leave environment is better than several other countries. To be sure, the high-skilled economic migration does take into account all these points before adopting talent mobility.
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