GO Science call for evidence

May 13, 2019

The Government Office for Science is urgently seeking evidence on how the UK research community will be affected by the changes to the visa and immigration system proposed in the government’s recent Immigration White Paper.  In particular, GO Science is asking employers to help it understand the impact of the proposed sponsorship and £30K salary threshold requirements on your ability to recruit and retain vital research and teaching talent.  We have provided links here for the excel spreadsheet that they would like you to use to send your responses.

Submissions on behalf of your organisation (or university department) should be made directly to GO Science.  The submission deadline is Monday 27 May, and responses should be sent to [email protected].

If you do make a submission, please can you share this with us too, as we are collating information for a British Academy of Management submission to the Government’s wider consultation on the Immigration White Paper, where we plan to highlight the concerns of the business and management community more broadly. If you are able to do so, we will not to share any sensitive information, and will ask for your permission to reference any information contained therein. Dr Ashley Lenihan, our Head of Policy & Engagement, will be happy to discuss any concerns you may have in this regard. She may be reached at: [email protected].

Helping the government to understand the impact of these proposed changes is vital to the future of the UK research and higher education community.  We are especially concerned about the impact of the proposed £30,000 threshold for skilled-migrant visas. International academic staff make up 35% of those in business studies and 32% in management studies.  In both cases over half of these international-origin staff are from EU and will now need visas under the new system. Large numbers of these international staff are also on fixed-term or part-time contracts in UK business and management schools and university departments — who provide vital teaching and research, but who may fall well below the £30K salary threshold.

We know this, but only you can provide the level of detail the government urgently seeks, if they are to consider changes to their policy for university staff on the basis of evidence.