India to Benefit as UK Lifts Cap on Ph.D-Level Work Visas
Indians will benefit the most from a new UK government plan to remove any limit on the number of PhD-level work visas to be granted. According to the reports, Indians constitute the largest portion of the highly skilled workers in Britain.
In a Spring Statement, UK Chancellor Philip Hammond declared that visa caps will not be applicable for all the highly skilled professionals that come to Britain to work for the PhD level work.
According to the data found in the UK Home Office, it is seen that Indians constitute the largest portion of the highly skilled workers in Britain. The change comes as a step towards helping Britain be at the front of the new technological advancements that have been taking place in the world. Britain aims to assist this by removing the visa caps that have been in play for a long time. Only the PhD level businesses will be a part of the new change.
The exemption of the PhD level jobs from the General or Tier 2 Cap will take place in the autumn of 2019 along with a change in the immigration rules on the 180-day absences, so as to help the researchers who are supervising research activities overseas from not being penalised for choosing to settle in the UK, says Hammond.
Last year, there was an increase in the grant of Tier 2 visas by 6% more than what it was the previous year to that. UK Universities are one of the top employers of these PhD level professionals. According to the Director of Universities UK International, Vivienne Stern, the news brings great news to Indian researchers as well as UK Universities who look forward to bringing brilliant minds from around the world. She also states that India is also one of the top three countries from where the universities prefer to employ their academic staff.
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Stern also describes that despite having a population that comprises a meagre 0.9% of the total population of the world, the amount of research work that originates from the UK is almost 15.9%. She believes that this is possible because of the number of international researchers present in and working with different UK institutions.
The change was brought in after cap was removed for doctors and nurses as well last year. The UK decided to ease out the IELTS norms for foreign nurses and midwives. The newest change to the visa caps is seen as one of the first steps to the complete removal of the visa caps that are levied on skilled workers from 2021. The removal of caps will also see the inception of the new immigration laws that the UK is currently working on.
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According to Caroline Nokes, the UK immigration minister, Indians are already one of the top international nationals who receive visas in the UK. She states that they are open to receiving the best and the brightest of India want to settle and work in the UK.