The United Kingdom has locked out African Universities from job opportunities following conditions set for the High Potential Individual (HPI) visa.
The new guidelines mean that for one to qualify for the HPI visa, an applicant must have graduated from one of the world’s top 50 universities.
The HPI visa guidelines have locked out all African Universities with none of them making the cut for the world’s top 50 universities.
Among the universities that qualified are European, Chinese and American Universities comprising universities such as Harvard University (US), University of Munich (Germany) and Hong Kong (Hong Kong).
The HPI visa allows its applicants to work and live in the United Kingdom for a period of two years making it a very lucrative visa. It also includes the advantage of being accompanied by a spouse in your work ventures in the UK. With an HPI visa, one can stay in the UK for at least two years.
In order to be eligible to apply for the HPI visa, one must have qualified from an eligible university within the last five years. It is also important to note that the HPI visa cannot be extended.
However, there is an allowance to switch to a different visa after having the HPI visa.
“You may be able to switch to a different visa,” read a statement from the UK government.
In Africa, many countries have protested the changes while many scholars have revealed that many Africans will be locked out of life-changing opportunities.
In the 2022 World University Ranking, the University of Nairobi Ranked at position 501 with many higher learning institutions missing out on the list of the top 600 universities.
Poor course types and poor governance are among the factors that were blamed for the poor performance of Kenyan universities and Africa at large in the 2022 World University Ranking.
The locking out of Kenyan and African universities out of the HPI visa has surprised many Kenyans with bilateral talks having been established between Nairobi and London. For a while, the UK has been a hub of employment for many Kenyans.
For instance, last year the Ministry of Labour announced that it had negotiated a deal with the United Kingdom under to send around 20,000 nurses to the UK.
“We are exporting Kenyan nurses. We were in London last month with President Uhuru Kenyatta and we held discussions with the UK government which agreed to take 20,000 of their 62,000 shortage of nurses trained in Kenyan,” said Labour CS Simon Chelugui said at the time.