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Attracting and retaining international talent
Last updated on Tuesday 20 Dec 2022 at 10:24pm
Universities support the UK Government’s drive to secure the UK’s position as a science and innovation superpower, but this requires the recruitment of the best research and innovation talent from across the globe.
The government has demonstrated its commitment to making the UK a science and innovation superpower by announcing its ambitious target to increase investment in research and development (R&D) to 2.4% of GDP by 2027. To achieve this target the government also announced it will be raising public investment in R&D to £22 billion per year by 2024/25 – a record increase in spending.
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Attracting and retaining international talent
Why is the UK is an attractive destination for researchers?
It's important to recognise and build upon what has already established the UK’s reputation as an attractive destination to do research. There is no doubting our international research performance – we have been ranked 1st for field-weighted citation impact in the G7 every year since 2007.
In 2018, the UK produced 14% of the world’s most highly cited publications. The UK, compared to other countries, has the largest proportion of its research among the world’s most highly cited publications.
In short, this is an area where we punch well above our weight.
If the UK is to sustain its target of 2.4% research intensity, it is estimated that the R&D sector will need at least an additional 150,000 researchers and technicians by 2030. It will not be enough to rely on British nationals – we need a sector that can continue to attract and retain overseas talent from all backgrounds and at all stages of their careers.
This fact has been readily acknowledged in the government’s 2021 people and culture strategy. A range of interventions have been introduced to diversify and widen routes into the UK:
- the Global Talent visa, which allows fast and straightforward entry for high skilled international scientists and researchers
- changes made to the Graduate Route, making it easier for promising young international graduates to secure skilled jobs in the UK
- continued development of the GREAT campaign website, designed to attract overseas talent to the UK
These recent immigration reforms recognise the importance of overseas talent contributing to our science and research ecosystem and have been warmly welcomed by the higher education sector. However, further changes to the immigration system will be needed if the UK is to reach the 2.4% target and continue attracting overseas researchers in the face of increasing international competition.
How we can continue to attract international researchers to the UK?
There are a wide range of factors a researcher will consider when choosing a destination country and institution. What an individual prioritises will depend on their circumstances which are likely to change as they progress throughout their career. If the UK is to achieve its ambition of becoming a science and innovation superpower, our offers need to be attractive at all stages of a researcher’s career.
We've developed a framework that considers visa and immigration obstacles for international researchers at three stages of their careers to structure our suggestions on how the immigration system could be reformed.
1. Early career researchers (ECRs)
We suggest the Home Office:
- Undertakes a benchmarking exercise to review visa application costs to ensure we are at least in line with our international competitors, if not more competitive on the grounds of cost.
- Enables applicants to pay the IHS over a series of staggered monthly payments over the lifetime of their visa, rather than requiring the total upfront.
- Continues to work with the sector in developing later stages of the GREAT campaign website, paying particular focus to support for ECRs on potential career pathway
2. Mid career researchers (MCRs)
We suggest the Home Office:
- Reviews and reforms ‘sole responsibility’ test to be more inclusive to diverse family structures.
- Reviews dependency visa costs to reduce the upfront financial burden for researchers with large families.
- Works with the sector in developing later stages of the GREAT campaign website to include practical information on housing, schools, and support for childcare for families settling in the UK.
3. International researchers
We suggest the Home Office:
- Enables family members on dependent visas to apply for ILR after three years, in line with those on the Global Talent visa.
- Enables visa application costs to be transferred across institutions when updating an applicant’s visa.
What problems need addressing?
We've put together the following examples of the kind of problems are researchers currently facing.
Applicants are coming to the UK for shorter periods to avoid paying additional visa and IHS costs
At one institution, several new starters have said that their visa costs, their family’s visa costs and the IHS costs are a big outlay and have asked for support. Particularly for open-ended roles where a five-year Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) would be an option, there are instances of individuals being issued with a CoS for a shorter period so they can afford the visa costs to come to the UK. The institution has a visa reimbursement and interest free loan scheme, but new starters are only able to access this once their employment starts.
It is difficult for the university to help them in advance of starting employment because of complexities including HMRC rules. One researcher, despite being employed in an open-ended contract, could only be issued a CoS for one year due to high visa and IHS costs.
Expensive dependant visa and IHS costs are making it difficult for researchers to bring over family
A researcher was offered a role as a Research Associate on a grant for which the university’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor was the Principal Investigator. He declined the offer as he could not afford the upfront cost of visa applications and IHS for himself, his wife and his two children. The cost worked out to ten times his current salary in Turkey. He was the only appointable candidate for the role and despite repeatedly readvertising, the university was not able to find any other suitable candidates.
A researcher seeking to remain in the UK pays two endorsements for the same visa
A researcher was on a Tier 4 Doctorate Extension Scheme (DES) visa which was due to expire approximately four months before his fixed term contract end date. He believed he met the criteria for global talent route 1 (directing or leading an individual or team in a research or innovation project), and this was confirmed by his manager. Route 3 would have been preferable as he was an Early Career Researcher and met all the criteria, apart from not having two years left on his contract at the point of applying. The employee wished to progress under route 1, so the university prepared a statement of guarantee letter to support his endorsement application.
The endorsement was refused. He requested a review, but there was no change to the decision. The university started to look at sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route, however there was a high cost and not much time left before his visa expiry and the contract end date. He decided to apply under global talent route 4 (peer review) and was successful. He therefore had to pay for two endorsements for the same visa, and had dependants, so the visa and IHS costs were significant.