Phew, my daughter who wants to work in UK is eligible. Good thing because I didn’t have to shell out big bucks.
CS degree from Carnegie Mellon? Nope, not good enough.
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There is also a relatively new program that lets US graduates of UK institutions stay for two years post-graduation. My son looked into that before he was able to get his skilled worker visa.
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Every country needs to regulate immigration. Why not have it be based on merit? Arguably, these diverse institutions produce top talent, otherwise they would not have the research output that they do. Let’s be honest, faculty get most of the credit, but it’s largely the students and postdocs doing the work at these places. I would imagine if there is not enough demand for UK at these universities, then UK would expand the list. They have to draw the line somewhere…
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The grass is always greener.
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It’s not based on merit. It’s based on a completely arbitrary weightings from a magazine or website that has very little to do with the merit of graduating students, particularly undergrads.
For example, 30% of the THE ranking is based the number of times a professor’s research publications are cited by other journals. Do you think this is a good merit measure to determine which undergrads are “high potential individuals”? Another 30% is based on professors’ research volume, reputation, and income? Is that any better for evaluating individual undergrads? Or are other categories like doctoral to bachelor’s ratio, doctoral to staff ratio, % international students, % international staff…? What does any of this have to do with the merit of graduating undergrads?
Or simply looking at the results… Does it makes sense to you that grads of NYU, UCSD, and Washington are “high potential individuals” while grads of Brown, Pomona, and Vanderbilt are not “high potential individuals”? Maybe if “individuals” is in the name of the group you are evaluating for merit you should actually consider the “individual” students being evaluated rather than looking at a ranking list on a magazine/website.
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It is better than the random lottery the US uses
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Michigan’s on the list. It’s up to snuff 
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Actually I think it’s more likely to be a reference to Honours degrees which are typically 4 years in length (many European undergraduate degrees are 3 years), encompass more courses in the major (specialist), and require completion of a senior year project or thesis.
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The US gives Visas for many special categories as well, except the categories are based on the individual receiving the Visa, not on how a magazine/website arbitrarily ranks colleges. For example, criteria for an EB-2A Visa is below:
EB-2 (A): Members of the professions holding advanced degrees or their equivalent
Applicants for this category must hold an ‘advanced’ degree, meaning at least a master’s degree, or have equivalent qualifications; such as a baccalaureate degree and substantial experience in their field. Usually a minimum of 5 years’ experience is required in the absence of an advanced degree.
Offer of employment
EB-2(A) applicants must have a confirmed US job offer. The job offered must require an advanced degree or equivalent qualifications (baccalaureate degree and at least 5 years of experience in your field).
Criteria
EB-2(A) applicants must provide the following documents:
- Proof of an advanced degree, such as a master’s or PhD OR;
- Proof of a baccalaureate degree and at least 5 years of experience in your field
- Proof of a US job offer which requires an advanced degree or equivalent (baccalaureate degree and at least 5 years of experience in your field)
An EB-2C Visa criteria is summarized below. There are many other Visa categories that depend on what I’d consider “merit.”
Criteria
EB-2 (C) applicants must show that it is in the US’s national interest for them to gain legal permanent residence in. Usually this means demonstrating that they have exceptional ability or talent in certain fields that will make them an asset to the US. There are 7 criteria which demonstrate this ability. Applicants must provide evidence - in the form of documents – that they meet at least 3 of these criteria:
- Proof of an academic qualification in your field of exceptional ability
- Proof that you have at least 10 years of experience working full time in your field
- A professional license, if needed for your profession
- Proof that you earn a salary appropriate to your level of exceptional ability
- Membership of professional associations in your field
- Proof that your contributions to your field have been recognised by your peers, such as prizes and awards
- Some other proof of your exceptional ability is sometimes accepted, please contact us if you’re not sure if the evidence you have is suitable
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Yes, I realize that. I have no objection to the UK’s inclusion of other categories, actually, the matter is entirely up to them.
US does have an actual immigration lottery program and it’s called Diversity Visa Program:
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/diversity-visa-program-entry/diversity-visa-submit-entry1.html?wcmmode=disabled
You mean your bumbershoot?
Its usage by Dick van Dyke (hardly the arbiter of all things British) withstanding, bumbershoot is not a UK term, and is rarely used except in jest. The term for an umbrella in the UK is umbrella, although brolly is used colloquially.
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It is interesting to see the list.
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I agree with the reference to honours degrees. In the UK they are usually 3 years except for languages (which typically include a year in the country of the language studied), courses with a year in industry (sandwich courses) and some science courses which often have a 4th year to obtain an undergraduate Masters degree. Ordinary degrees are awarded where the student does not submit a project or thesis and/ or fails to meet the exam marks threshold for an honours degree.
Hear hear
Or even smaller (something you’d put on a cocktail stick as finger food). And often used as a term of derision, especially if you are following the Wagatha Christie libel case.