The prized sesame will be awarded for a period of two to three years to graduates of the best universities in the world. In France, it is only about students of Paris Sciences et Lettres.

This new program, aimed at attracting the most promising young professionals in their professional field, will be accessible to alumni who have graduated in the last five years. No job offer is required to apply. Interested people can apply directly online.

To be eligible, applicants must meet UK safety and crime requirements, and be proficient in English to at least B1 level, defined by the British Council as “the ability to interact effortlessly with native speakers”. Successful applicants will have to pay £715 to obtain their visa, in addition to the necessary health tax to benefit from the country’s health services, while a minimum deposit of £1,270 will also be required in their bank account. Students who have validated a license or a master’s degree will be able to spend two years on British soil, compared to three for those who have a doctorate.

American universities overrepresented, France also present

Among the thirty-seven establishments selected by the UK as part of this new program include twenty US campuses, including Harvard, Princeton and Stanford. To appear on this list – which varies by year – universities must appear in the top 50 of at least two of the main world rankings in this field, such as the Times Higher Education, the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings or the Academic Ranking of World Universities. In France, only University of Sciences and Letters of Paris currently meets this requirement.

If this new visa only allows the entry of a tiny part of the young graduates, the Minister of the Interior, Priti Patel, wanted to defend, however, a fair reform “within the framework of the immigration system by points that prioritizes the capacities and talent, and not the origin of a person”. As a reminder, several thousand foreign academics have already left the UK since Brexit.