A NEW visa giving international graduates the opportunity to work in the UK before receiving a job offer has come under fire from academics for failing to include students from universities in Africa and the Caribbean.
The High Potential Individual Scheme was rolled out by the Home Office for people who have graduated from higher education (HE) institutions in the past five years from what is dubbed as some of the world’s most elite universities.
From today, undergraduate and PhD holders will now be able to start a new life in the UK for up to three years without being required to have a job in the pipeline for them.
The universities listed from global league tables include Harvard University and Princeton University in the US and Kyoto University in Japan as well as other HE institutions in Switzerland and Australia.
Dr Amina Ahmed El-Imam, a lecturer at the University of Ilorin in Nigeria, said the move by the Home Office was “heartbreaking” as black graduates stand to be disproportionately affected by the decision.
“These ratings are based on criteria that favour universities which have been around for hundreds of years and have access to a lot of funding,” she told News Scientist.
“As someone from Nigeria who did their PhD in Britain, it’s heartbreaking to see that there are still processes being put in place that inadvertently exclude Africans.
“Does this visa mean that there are no individual graduates from African universities with high potential?”
Those who can access the new visa also leave out students from universities across Latin America and South Asia.
It comes after the University of the West Indies (UWI) was ranked within the top 1.5% universities in the world, according to the Times Higher Education ranking system.
The prestigious university, which has campuses in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, was reported to sit near the global summit of academic institutions from a global estimate of 30,000 universities and elite research institutes.
Nick Hillman, a director at the Higher Education Policy Institute in Oxford, accused the Home Office of saving face following the announcement.
“This is the sort of idea the Home Office loves because it allows them to look liberal while maintaining close control,” he told News Scientist. “I’m sceptical about it because ‘top’ universities and the best universities are not the same when it comes to teaching quality.”
The use of global university league tables has been slammed in the past for its inaccurate methods of determining academic excellence among universities and its students.
Professor Olusola Oyewole, secretary general at the Association of African Universities (AAU), weighed in on the controversy and called the Home Office “wrong” to undervalue the talent of African graduates.
“I believe Britain is unfair to African graduates, using the ranking of universities as a criterion for engagements,” he told Mail and Guardian.
“The UK is wrong to assume that graduates from high-ranking universities are more skilled than graduates from Africa.”
“I do not want to make excuses for African universities because their mission may not be the same as those of Europe and America that had been in existence for many hundreds of years. [But] a ranking system that considers the number of Nobel laureates as a measure of academic reputation may not favour African universities.”
Prof. Oyewole went on to lay the blame at the lack of funding offered to education establishments across the continent.
The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, said: “This new visa offer means that the UK can continue to attract the best and brightest from across the globe. The route means that the UK will grow as a leading international hub for innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.
“We want the businesses of tomorrow to be built here today – which is why I call on students to take advantage of this incredible opportunity to forge their careers here.
“The UK is already home to some of the most ground-breaking start-ups, on the forefront of R&D and an incredibly diverse and exciting place to live – come and join in!”
The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, said: “I am proud to be launching this new and exciting route as part of our points-based immigration system which puts ability and talent first – not where someone comes from.
“This government is delivering for the British people by bringing in the high skills and talent our country and businesses need.”
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Please be consistent, you always say the UK is the most racist country, so why you want to introduce these black kids to it?
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This policy is ill thought and disproportionate to the African continent, and the Caribbean Countries as well,it should be all inclusive don’t build walls but bridges, thanks
I just want to say this is absurd, we can see what we have been saying about the home office and his hidden agenda. European and American universities students cannot compete with Africans students educationally we knows that and we can prove that here in the United Kingdom. Sad sad sad
The UK government is very racist all Caribbean and other countries should have the same right as other countries I am white and British.
Caribbean and African people are one of the best and caring people I know.
To the UK government you say you want the best well let Caribbean and others countries have the same right.
Racism is alive, stifling talent and ability !!!
Priti Patel is clearly basing this system on where you are from
This is an ill devised policy as it lacks substance and respect from a just society. Where in the world is Britain going to get diverse talent and abilities if she closes her doors to 90% of the world regions and especially the regions with the most underfunded universities?
The claim by the Home Secretary that they are shifting their immigration policy not to focus on where people come from but their talents and abilities is a fallacy as this High Potential Visa just turned the new policy on it’s head. The so called universities listed already helped the Home Office to do their dirty job by only focussing and selecting people based on their status, disposition and advantages including where they came from. This act is the Home Office gerrymandering and every right thinking and unbiased British person should rightly condemn and expose this indirect discrimination and covert racism against BAME countries.
The originators of such ill advised ideas are the proponents and off-shoots of those want only whites to have a claim/stake in the future of Britain! With good sound bites they bring policies that exclude blacks ascendency or foothold in the country. We hear of sagas like the Windrush scandal and other hostile racist laws and regulations that limits Black Commonwealth citizens having any legitimacy in this country.
“whites”
“Black Commonwealth citizens”
If you want to be taken seriously as an anti-racist, you need to moderate your own language.
“Whites” “Blacks” “Coloureds” went out a century or two ago (unless you were in apartheid South Africa).
For consistency, either all ethnicities defined by skin colour are entitled to the dignity of a capital letter, or none are.
1) University ranking systems are in and of themselves biased. There are many excellent universities on the continent producing excellent graduates with perspectives and skills unavailable elsewhere. Graduates from which universities and where identified the covid omicron variant? Where was the world’s first university? Timbuktu.
2) It echoes the unpublished Home Office report looking at immigration laws and regulations from the 1950s which found they deliberately attempted to exclude black immigrants.
Britain is trash. And racist to its core Britain use black people from the time of Slavery to now, to build your one time world wide dominance and empire.
That’s how it begin to this very day Britain(UK) your very existence ON THIS EARTH IS BECAUSE OF BLACK PEOPLE Trying now to eradicate BLACK POPLE Now is to eradicate what’s left of your so call UK. Rome comes to mind, so keep up your hateful racist ways and you shall be gone with the wind (WIND RUSH) Black is here to stay on this EARTH And there’s not a DAMN thing you can do about it but eat your HATE
Where do the Commonwealth countries that have Universities fit?
Commonwealth countries have always been excluded but only useful for their resources?
There is a Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting coming up in the next two weeks in Ruwanda Will these Heads of Government have the courage to speak up?
This is good. Let the world know what Britain stands for and where her bias lies. Enough of the brain drain in Africa – go back home with your skillset and build there!
Lol Lorraine
I am sure Britain is not holding people from going back home to build, or are they?
All these fellow Africans shouting racism. Are you the one to explain what Britain should set as criteria for high-quality people? And for your information, there are Africans who hold degrees from those top universities that the UK has chosen to source talents from. It is not only African or Carribean universities that were excluded. Most US schools are not even included.
All schools cannot be included unless they have a strategy of picking schools from each continent. And if they do this, only South African universities or Egyptian universities will qualify………..
Africa still has a loooong way to go. But let us build our continent and institutions. People will want us too. Not destroy things.
Her Majesty’s African and African-Caribbean heritage Subjects are not wanted in England anymore.
The public behaviour of Her Majesty’s Government; Political Parties of all colours, the Home Office, Local Authorities, Trade Unions, Academics at Oxbridge, the Anglican Church is proof of the hostility; skin-colour disparity; segregation and racism that is reserved for African-heritage men and women.
Can anyone recommend a non-Caucasian non-Asian country I can escape too?