UK plans new student visa

The United Kingdom has announced the introduction of a new visa, High Potential Individual by May 30.

The visa is meant to enable university graduates – first degrees, masters, and doctorates relocation to the country.

Nigerian graduates are however not granted access to the visa following the statement by the UK government.

To qualify for the HPI visa, applicants must possess a degree from one of the top 50 universities as published in the global universities list by the Home Office.

The UK Minister of Safe and Legal Migration, Kevin Foster said, “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.”

According to them, the list would be compiled yearly and include institutions in the list of 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 the Academic Ranking of the World Universities.

Nigerian universities have no ranking in the aforementioned ranking systems.