‘Snobbish’ Brexit visa plan shuts out students from Africa and south Asia

Ministers are facing a backlash over a Brexit visa plan for the “brightest and best” graduates that excludes universities in Africa, South Asia and Latin America.

The Home Office was accused of “snobbery” and a “deeply inequitable approach” over the scheme where graduates from the top 50 overseas universities will be eligible for visas to work in Britain under a new post-Brexit immigration policy.

The “high potential individual” route is designed to attract the “brightest and best” graduates from the world’s most prestigious universities to come and work in the UK at the beginning of their careers.

Successful applicants with a bachelor’s or master’s from the universities will get a two-year work visa enabling them also to bring their families. PhD-holders will be able to apply to stay for three years. The graduates can then switch to other long-term employment visas.

However, Christopher Trisos, director and senior researcher at the University of Cape Town, said it was a deeply inequitable approach with no south Asian, Latin American or African universities.

Instead, there are 20 US universities including Harvard and Yale as well as institutions from Canada, Europe, China, Japan, Australia and Singapore.

Mr Trisos said that if the UK wants to play a role in addressing major challenges such as energy access, climate change and pandemics, “then they need to be recognising and including diverse skills and in-depth knowledge held by many graduates from universities in developing countries”.

‘Astounding snobbery’

MP Caroline Lucas, a member of the UK Trade and Business Commission, said there was a risk it could be seen as “rooted in classism” which would give the illusion of success rather than help rejuvenate the economy.

“Giving preferential treatment to someone who scraped through Harvard, over someone at the top of their class from another institution or someone without a degree who can help address Britain’s acute labour shortages, betrays both astounding snobbery and a failure to understand the serious workforce challenges facing the UK,” she said.

The Home Office said the eligible universities had been identified from three of the world’s most reliable rankings.

To be in the top 50, they must appear in at least two of either: Times Higher Education World University Rankings, Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings or The Academic Ranking of World Universities.

“Using a combination of these lists provides independent validation for institutions and opens up the opportunity for new international universities to move up the ranks and join this list in the future,” said a Home Office spokeswoman.

Home Office defends visa routes

She also said graduates from the universities were eligible regardless of their nationality.

There were also routes from other universities, including the graduate visa, that allows them to stay and work in the UK two years after getting their degree in the UK, and the skilled worker and global talent visas.

The new visa route will be open to graduates from the top 50 non-UK universities awarded degrees no more than five years before the date of application. It will be uncapped, so numbers will depend on demand.

Under previous rules, they would have needed a sponsor with a concrete job offer to get a work visa, have to have met required salary levels and show they were not taking a post that could be filled by a British worker.