Wednesday, 24 November 2021

Nobody Rings the Nobel To the UK?

A fast-track visa route to lure the 'best and brightest' to the UK, has failed to receive a single application in its first 6 months of operation (https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/nov/23/post-brexit-scheme-to-lure-nobel-winners-to-uk-fails-to-attract-single-applicant). The fast track visa scheme is open to Nobel laureates and other winners of prestigious global prizes in fields such as Science, Engineering, Humanities and Medicine. The scheme's failure is hardly surprising, as the UK is now actually less of a draw. Top flight academics tend to favour countries with excellent support, access to lavish funding and who support free movement (many of the 'high-flyers' will have lots of junior support staff, family members etc). I suspect that the UK's clear antipathy to 'foreigners' also doesn't help much. Devisers of the scheme appear to be deluded.

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