A new visa scheme allows graduates from world’s top universities to come to UK

Under a new visa scheme, graduates from the world’s finest universities will be able to apply to come to the United Kingdom. The “high-potential individual” path, as per the government, will attract the “brightest and greatest” early in their careers.

According to BBC, alumni of major non-UK universities who graduated within the last five years will be eligible for the scheme. Graduates will be eligible regardless of where they were born, and they will not be required to apply if they have a job offer.

If you have a bachelor’s or master’s degree, you will be awarded a two-year work visa, and if you have a Ph.D., you will be given a three-year work visa. If they achieve certain standards, they will be eligible to switch to other long-term employment visas.

There will be no limit on the number of graduates that are eligible.

A person must have graduated from a university that was ranked in the top 50 of at least two of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings, or The Academic Ranking of World Universities in the year they graduated to be eligible.

The government produced an online list of qualified colleges for 2021 that included 20 US universities, including Harvard, Yale, and MIT.

The University of Hong Kong, the University of Melbourne, and the Paris Sciences et Lettres University were among the other 17 qualified universities.

Some scholars, on the other side, have expressed displeasure that no universities from South Asia, Latin America, or Africa have been featured on the list.

It’s a deeply inequitable method, according to Christopher Trisos, director and senior researcher at the University of Cape Town.

“They need to be recognised and including varied skills and in-depth knowledge held by many graduates from institutions in developing nations,” he said, if the UK wants to play a part in addressing the century’s big challenges, such as energy access, climate change, and pandemics.

The visa will cost £715 plus an immigration health premium, which permits migrants to use the NHS in the United Kingdom.

Graduates will be able to bring their families, but they must have a minimum of £1,270 in maintenance funds. They must also pass a security and criminality check and have at least a B1 intermediate level of English proficiency, which is characterised as having the “fluency to communicate with native speakers without effort.”

Changes to the plan allow international students studying in the UK to stay and work for up to two years.

The student visa scheme, which was reintroduced two years ago, overturned a 2012 decision by then-Home Secretary Theresa May, which required international students to leave four months after completing their degree.

The combination of university lists used by the Home Office “provides independent validation for institutions and opens up the option for new foreign universities to progress up the ranks and join this list in the future,” according to a spokesman for the department.

They went on to say that each of the qualified universities attracts students from all over the world, and that there are “many alternative paths eligible for graduates from other universities, including the Graduate, Skilled Worker, and Global Talent routes” for graduates from other universities.

“The approach implies that the UK will grow as a major international hub for innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship,” stated Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

Via: BBC