Program to help persons who have won important international awards become fast-tracked. ‘Elitist’ and a ‘joke,’ track visas are ridiculed.
According to reports, a post-Brexit scheme aimed at attracting the world’s most renowned academics and other important personalities to the UK has failed to attract a single candidate in the six months since it launched.
Experts have dubbed the Nobel Prize and other prestigious global prize winners visa route, which is open to Nobel laureates and other prestigious global prize winners in fields such as science, engineering, humanities, and medicine – among others – a joke after ministers admitted it had sparked no interest.
“Chances that a single Nobel or Turing laureate would move to the UK to work are zero for the next decade or so,” the Nobel prize winner Andre Geim told New Scientist magazine, which first reported the news.
“The idea itself is a joke – it cannot be addressed seriously,” said the University of Manchester academic, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 for his work on graphene. The government believes that boosting UK science with verbal diarrhea of optimism will lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Winners of some of the world’s most prestigious prizes were offered a fast track to a global talent visa, allowing them to live and work in the UK without having to meet any other requirements, as part of the scheme, which was launched in May.
The Nobel prizes in physics, chemistry, and medicine, as well as the Fyssen international prize, were included in the program for scientists, whereas only the Fields medal was included for mathematicians. Several prizes were available for those in computing, engineering, and social science, as well as a British award.
People on the global talent visa route had to apply to one of six endorsing bodies, whereas the prestigious award route would “allow applicants who hold a qualifying prize to fast-track the endorsement application and instead make a single visa application,” according to the Home Office at the time of the announcement.
Priti Patel, the home secretary, praised it as a way of attracting “the best and brightest” to the UK. “These significant improvements will allow them to come and work in our world-class arts, sciences, music, and film industries as we rebuild,” she said. This is precisely what our new points-based immigration system was created for: to attract the best and brightest based on their abilities and talent, not their origins.”
Six months later, New Scientist claimed that no one working in science, engineering, the humanities, or medicine had applied, citing a government answer to its freedom of information request.
“Frankly, having precisely zero people apply for this elitist scheme doesn’t surprise me at all,” the magazine quoted Jessica Wade, a leading scientist at Imperial College London, as saying. “UK scientists’ access to European funding is uncertain, we’re not very attractive to European students as they have to pay international fees, our pensions are being cut and scientific positions in the UK are both rare and precarious.”
“It’s apparent this is just another gimmick from a government that over-spins and under-delivers,” Labour’s Chi Onwurah, the shadow science minister, added. Given their lack of consistent support for scientists here, it’s hardly surprising that the government has failed so comprehensively to attract scientists from overseas.”
According to the Home Office, the scheme makes it easier for persons at the “apex of their profession” to come to the UK.
“It is just one option under our global talent route, through which we have received thousands of applications since its launch in February 2020 and this continues to rise.”
