African, South Asian and Latin American universities left out of ‘snobby’ visa plan

MINISTERS are facing backlash over a Brexit visa plan for the “brightest and best” graduates, excluding 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 leading universities to work in the UK at the beginning of their careers. Successful applicants with a bachelor’s or master’s degree 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, the 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 on the list.

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 wanted to address challenges such as climate change, “then they need to be recognising diverse skills and in-depth knowledge held by many graduates from universities in developing countries”.

MP Caroline Lucas, a member of the UK Trade and Business Commission said: “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.”

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

‘The UK needs to recognise the diverse skills held by graduates from universities in developing countries’