By May 30, the United Kingdom will begin granting a new visa that will allow holders of bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees to work in science, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the country.
The high-potential individual visa permits applicants to enter the United Kingdom without a job offer or sponsorship. People who graduated from Nigerian universities, on the other hand, were exempt from certain of the requirements.
According to the UK government, applicants for the HPI visa must have a degree from a foreign university. On the Home Office’s global universities list, the university must be listed among the top global universities.
The list would be updated annually, according to the government, and would include institutions that were ranked in the top 50 universities in at least two of the following ranking systems: Times Higher Education World University Rankings, Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings, and Academic Ranking of World Universities.
Applicants must also have achieved a degree that is at least comparable to a UK bachelor’s degree.
Meanwhile, checks revealed that Nigerian universities are not included in any of these global rankings.
Many Nigerians considering relocating to the United Kingdom for academic or professional reasons have done so.
According to UK Minister of Safe and Legal Migration Kevin Foster, the “High Potential Individual” visa path is intended at recruiting high-skilled international university graduates who will be able to work and remain in the UK for two or three years.
After their visas expire, they can apply for permits to stay in the UK through the skilled worker, start-up and innovator, exceptional talent, or scale-up channels.
“The new High Potential Individual route will make it as simple as possible for internationally mobile individuals who demonstrate high potential to come to the UK. It will enable those who have already demonstrated their potential through academic achievement to come to the UK without a prior job offer.
“If you’ve been resident in the UK for more than 12 months, you might not need to meet this requirement. Graduates with a bachelor’s or a master’s degree will be given a two-year visa. Ph.D. or other doctoral-level graduates will get visas valid for three years. This visa can only be granted once and will not be available to those who have already had a Graduate visa,” Foster said.
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Source: Nyscinfo