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A visa for the “brightest and best”.
The United Kingdom created a special visa to attract graduates from the best universities in the world.
The government argues that the “high potential individual” visawhich takes effect from this Monday, May 30, will attract the most gifted minds in the world at the beginning of their careers.
The scheme will be available to alumni from top universities outside the UK who have graduated in the last five years.
Graduates will be eligible regardless of where they were born and will not need a job offer to apply for the visa.
Successful applicants will receive a two-year work visa if they have a bachelor’s or master’s degree and three years if they have a doctorate.
image source, Archyde.com
They will then be able to switch to other long-term work visas if they meet certain requirements. There will be no limit on the number of eligible graduates.
The chosen universities
To qualify, a person must have attended a university that appeared in the top 50 in at least two of three rankings in the year the candidate graduated.
The names of the lists are (in English): Times Higher Education World University Rankings, Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings and Academic Ranking of World Universities.
No Latin American university appears in the list of 37 institutions published by the government British. All the houses of higher education are from the United States, Europe and Asia.
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Harvard University is one of the members of the list whose graduates can access the visa.
Specifically, the list includes 20 US universities, including Harvard, Yale, and MIT. And, outside of US territory, there are 17 qualified institutions, including the University of Hong Kong, the University of Melbourne and the University of Sciences and Letters of Paris.
Some academics expressed disappointment at the exclusion of universities from South Asia, Latin America or Africa, calling the approach deeply inequitable.
If the UK wants to play a role in tackling the major challenges of this century, such as energy access, climate change and pandemics, “then it needs to recognize and include the various skills and insights of many university graduates from developing countries.” Christopher Trisos, director and principal investigator at the University of Cape Town, told the BBC.
Visa costs and requirements
The visa will cost £715 ($905), plus the Immigration Health Surcharge, a fee that allows UK arrivals to use the public health system.
Graduates will be able to bring their families with them, although they must have living funds of at least £1,270 (US$1,606).
image source, Archyde.com
They will also need to pass a security and crime check and have an English language certificate up to at least intermediate level B1, defined as “fluency to communicate effortlessly with native speakers.”
The new visa is part of a package of measures that includes allowing foreigners stay and work in the UK for up to two yearsinstead of having to leave following completing your course.
“The visa means that the UK will become a leading international center for innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship,” said British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak.
“We want the businesses of the future to be built here and today, which is why I ask students to take advantage of this incredible opportunity to build their careers here,” he added.
While on the one hand the UK is looking for “brilliant minds” with this visa, the state’s immigration policy has also been criticized for other measures.
Last month, Britain announced that it wanted to send asylum seekers who cross the English Channel in small boats to Rwanda.
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Complete list of the 37 universities:
University of Munich (LMU Munich)
University of British Columbia
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Universidad Johns Hopkins
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
New York University (NYU)
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
University of California, San Diego
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Pennsylvania
University of Texas at Austin
University of Washington
Paris Sciences and Letters – PSL Research University
Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)
Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
National University of Singapore
Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL)
Federal Polytechnic School of Zurich (ETH)
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