PhD Visa rules
Last year I had an enquiry from a prospective PhD canidate, from Libya. He seems like a decent enough bet: he had a MSc from Cardiff, and his references from there were fine - so there were no major concerns with his English or his general background knowledge. His MSc project was in an area relevant to my own work. So, it looked like his could make a go of a PhD.
David McGloin gives an example of the idiocy of the UK's policy of restricting access to our universities for fully-funded overseas research students.
May 21, 2012 at 3:03 pm
Something of the reverse situation exists to some extent in Germany. It is easier for non-EU citizens to get work and residence permits in Germany if they are “highly qualified”. Rather than try to define this, the rule is that their future salary in Germany has to be more then X. Someone then noticed that X is higher than the standard pay for a full professor, so by some definition the government defines its own professors as not “highly qualified”. (The comparison isn’t completely fair, though, because professors are civil servants and as such enjoy benefits which make up for a low salary compared to similarly skilled people outside of academia. Nevertheless, there was recently a court case where the court ruled that professorial salary (after the “reform” a few years ago) is indeed too low in that it conflicts with the constitutional demand for the government to support its civil servants at an appropriate level. Also, work and residence permits have been automatic for jobs in academia in Germany for decades now; for professors there is even an exception to the rule that civil servants must be German citizens.)
May 21, 2012 at 3:59 pm
But in Germany the salary rule doesn’t apply if you are working in an academic (or perhaps only scientific?) field. Which allows non-EU citizens to work as post-docs, etc. In fact Germany makes it significantly easier than the UK does, though this is hardly surprising, since almost everything the UK does is crazy.
May 21, 2012 at 4:18 pm
Right; that’s what I meant by my last sentence.