One of Britain’s most distinguished scientists, Professor Sir Paul Nurse, says the government is “shooting itself in the foot” with its visa system for scientific researchers.
Sir Paul told BBC News that high visa fees are deterring early career researchers, who are instead welcomed by the UK’s economic rivals.
Supporters of the current system say higher visa costs help fund the NHS and reflect wider public concerns about immigration.
But the Nobel Prize-winning scientist says the UK’s scientific future is at risk.
“Having high visa costs is a shot in the foot. It doesn’t help at all to attract these types of people,” Sir Paul said.
Sir Paul, who has taken up the role of president of the Royal Society, which represents the UK’s leading scientists, warns that countries such as China and Singapore are actively courting foreign scientific talent.
“Why are we putting obstacles in the way of people who are really going to drive our economy? It doesn’t make any sense.”
The Nobel laureate describes the UK’s scientific base as “fragile” due to a combination of high visa costs, financial pressures and the negative signal from current immigration rules.
He is urging ministers to rethink a system that forces scientists to pay an annual surcharge to the NHS and prove they have thousands of pounds in the bank before they arrive.
The official guide to the Immigration Health Surcharge explains that visa applicants pay the surcharge to help fund their medical care.
Home Office guidelines state that applicants must demonstrate set levels of savings to demonstrate they can support themselves “without recourse to public funds”.
The Center for Policy Studies, a center-right policy think tank, argues in its report Taking Back Control that net migration should be reduced to “tens of thousands.”
But his policy expert on the issue, Karl Williams, broadly agrees with Sir Paul’s sentiments, but argues that a strict overall cap on migration should be maintained after a historically large recent surge in immigration.
“The wave of immigration that we had between 2021 and 2024 is probably the most significant demographic event in modern British history… If you say yes to one sector, then you start saying yes to other sectors and, in effect, you just recreate the problems of recent years.”
According to the visa statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the total number of people who received a visa for a job in natural and social sciences in the last quarter was 323 people.
“Even if that figure were doubled, it wouldn’t make much difference to the overall migration figures,” Williams told BBC News.
“But there is no robust system to make that work, for example having conversations about where numbers can be reduced to allow more scientists in.”
