A fast-track visa route into the UK exclusively for prize-winning researchers has failed to be the big draw that the government had hoped. In two years, the scheme has received just three applicants, Research Professional News reported.
Part of the government’s post-Brexit Global Talent scheme, the programme sought to encourage the “brightest and best” to the UK by making it easier for award-winners in sciences, humanities, engineering, the arts and digital technology to apply for their visa through the government’s wider initiative.
Winners of the Nobel Prize in physics, chemistry, economic science and medicine, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, the Fields Medal and the Turing Award were all eligible to apply as well as award recipients working in music, film, TV, theatre, arts and literature.
When the scheme was launched in May 2021, the then-home secretary Priti Patel said: “Winners of these awards have reached the pinnacle of their career and they have so much to offer the UK. These important changes will give them the freedom to come and work in our world-leading arts, sciences, music, and film industries as we build back better.”
She added: “This is exactly what our new point-based immigration system was designed for – attracting the best and brightest based on the skills and talent they have, not where they’ve come from.”
Patel may have thought that, but the plan had a fatal flaw – the “best and the brightest” did not want to come to post-Brexit Britain. Only three applications have been received in total, RPN found, all of which have been successful. Two of these applied in 2022 with the other applicant applying this year.
According to Mike Galsworthy, Chair of European Movement UK and director of the campaign group Scientists for EU, the government failed to comprehend the gravity of the task they undertook.
“The problem here is that this government profoundly misunderstand what it takes to attract global academic talent to the UK,” he told The New European. “It is not simply a case of saying: ‘Let the doors be open to the brightest and the best!’ Rather, it is much more about creating an environment that genuinely makes global talent wish to come to your country, political dimensions included. Very bluntly, this government has thrown open the doors to the pool party, but poisoned the waters. No wonder very few are keen.”
He added: “Just three people applying to the government’s Global Talent Visa scheme over two years is embarrassing. Particularly when it spans all science, engineering, the humanities and medicine.”
Then again, Galsworthy argues, this is all in keeping with the farce the government has displayed over Erasmus+, dithering over our membership to Horizon Europe which led New Zealand to race ahead of the UK in securing access to the EU-backed research funding scheme and “waging a war of words on UK universities” to deter top talent.
The disincentive Galsworthy refers to includes Rishi Sunak’s announcement last month that the immigration health surcharge for adults would increase from £624 to £1,035. Meanwhile, much to the disappointment of the UK’s scientific research community, the discounted rate for students and under-18s also increased from £470 to £776.
The humiliating news about the visa scheme’s failure comes at a time where, at every turn, Sunak is getting immigration wrong – and it’s starting to show. In exclusive polling completed for Byline Times in February, 45% of respondents stated that they would now opt to leave Britain and live abroad if they had the chance, compared to 35% who said they would remain. This precedes IPSOS polling from July which stated that three out of four people now saw Britain as becoming a worse place to live.
Attracting talent may be on the list of the government’s problems, but now they can add retention too.
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