No UK work visa for African universities graduates

The UK will offer work visas to graduates from some of the world’s top universities, but no African universities are included in the list of eligible institutions.

The scheme announced last month will allow graduates with a bachelor’s or master’s degree from the top 50 universities abroad can apply for a two-year work visa and can bring family members.

PhD graduates can apply for a three-year visa.

The exclusion of African educational institutions has led to some complaints that African talent would be excluded – although Africans who have attended the listed universities can apply.

The work visa is for people who have graduated from one of what is often considered the world’s top universities within the last five years prestigious universities, and is an extension of the post-Brexit immigration system based on it aims to attract the “best and brightest” employees. p>

To qualify, an individual must have attended university t ie in the top 50 of at least two of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings, or the Academic Ranking of in the year of graduation World Universities.

The latest list of eligible universities as of 2021, published online by the UK government, includes more than two dozen US universities, as well as institutions in Canada, Japan, Germany, China, Singapore, France and Sweden.

No African university is on the most recent eligibility list, nor on lists from previous years.

“These assessments are based on criteria that favor universities that have been around for hundreds of years and have access to many funding sources,” Amina Ahmed El-Imam of Ilorin University in Nigeria told New Scientist magazine.

The En The decision to exclude graduates from African universities has been criticized.

“To exclude an entire continent brimming with the tremendous creative and intellectual energy of its youth on the basis of their absence from arbitrary, culturally biased, abuse-prone university rankings is short-sighted …. Several unranked African universities have produced and continue to produce some of the brightest minds in the world,” Professor Farooq Kperogi of Kennesaw State University, Georgia, told CNN.

“University rankings are one Euro-American obsession. They are no more than perceptions of institutional prestige and notoriety… which do not necessarily reflect quality,” Kperogi added.

Irina Filatova, professor emeritus at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, told CNN that the Ranking system is “skewed in favor of English language and technical universities”.

“It’s good that universities compete, but the problem is that the ranking system is skewed in favor of English language and technical universities. If you look at the top universities, they are the best in technology,” Filatova said.

Association of African Universities (AAU) Secretary-General Professor Olusola Oyewole was quoted as saying by the Mail and Guardian : “I believe the UK It is unfair to African graduates to use university rankings as a criterion for engagement.” He added: “The UK is wrong in assuming that graduates from top-ranked universities are more qualified than graduates from Africa.”

Oyewole said that with the right facilities, funding and enabling environment, African graduates can be resilient, resourceful and highly innovative in the workforce.

The University of Nairobi was recognized by Times Higher Education (THE ) in the World Universities Ranking 2022 report.

This was a significant improvement over last year’s ranking, in which UoN au f places 601-800.

In Africa, the University of Cape Town and The University of Stellenbosch – both in South Africa – are the top-ranked institutions in the continent.

However, none of them are listed in the top 50 or 100 rankings of the world’s leading credit rating agencies.

Cape Town ranks 183rd in Times High’s Education World University Rankings for 2022 , followed by Stellenbosch, which ranks between 251 and 300.