Staff out of pocket as sector splits on aid for foreign recruits

Overseas staff at some of the UK’s most prestigious universities face paying immigration fees thousands of pounds higher than their counterparts at similar institutions, according to a Times Higher Education survey that reveals wide variation in the support offered to international employees as Brexit approaches.

In the survey of Russell Group members, no two responses were the same: some reimbursed visa costs for workers but not their families, while others offered only interest-free loans. Some of the institutions – many of which employ a high proportion of staff from the European Union and further afield – said that they did not have a policy dedicated to the issue.

The issue has been put into sharp focus as the UK’s exit from the EU nears, with the proposed move of staff from the bloc on to the same immigration regime as international employees after 29 March, meaning that they will need visas too, and promising sharply increased costs for universities with generous support packages – and big bills for staff at institutions that do not.

Analysis by the Universities and Colleges Employers Association has shown that institutions would face a bill of £32.5 million in fees alone in the first year of an immigration regime that required all newly recruited staff to get a Tier 2 skilled worker visa – equivalent to £2,953 per academic (and slightly more, £3,317, per professional services employee, if an exemption for recruits with PhD-level qualifications is maintained) – if they opted to cover all the costs.

Ucea said that the annual cost of maintaining EU employees’ Tier 2 visas would come to a further £86.4 million after five years.

The large bills may explain some institutions’ reluctance to subsidise them. In THE’s survey, the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow appeared the most generous, confirming that they would cover not only the visa and pre-application costs for EU staff, but that they would reimburse international staff for their visas and the £400 annual healthcare surcharge required of them.

Edinburgh is currently the only Russell Group institution to extend its financial support to cover staff families and dependants. At the other end of the scale, the University of Liverpool said that it did not currently cover the cost of any international visas or the pre-application fee for EU citizens seeking settled status. The University of York said that it did not currently cover any costs beyond the £65 pre-application settlement fee for EU staff.

Meanwhile, the University of Nottingham said that staff seeking any kind of visa would be eligible for an interest-free loan only, and Imperial College London said that support for visa costs was at the discretion of individual departments.

Half the mission group’s 24 member institutions said that they would not cover the NHS surcharge.

Matt Waddup, the University and College Union’s head of policy and campaigns, said that “at a time of such continuing uncertainty”, the variation in support provided “can only add to the stress for staff and their families”.

“All universities should ensure they provide proper financial support and advice for EU and non-EU international staff given the current prohibitively expensive visa and immigration system,” he said.

Gregor Gall, an affiliate research associate in economic and social history at Glasgow, explained that the discrepancies felt were a probable consequence of the “competitive dynamics of the international labour market for academic staff”.

“The more research-intensive universities with greater resources will be the ones that are more able to make a freer decision about their policy, and are likely then to give more financial help to smooth the recruitment of academics (and their families) from EU countries,” he said. “This is not necessarily fair nor ethical but it does reflect the institutional differences in the distribution of resources and the difference in market positions in higher education.”

However, universities have been warned that their efforts to support EU staff as Brexit approaches could unsettle their employees from the rest of the world.

Timothy Devinney, leadership chair in international business at the University of Leeds, said that covering EU settlement costs – as the vast majority of Russell Group members will – would be “discriminatory” if institutions did not also cover international employees’ fees for visa renewals and indefinite leave to remain applications. “It implies that one set of employees are worth supporting while another class are not,” he said.

Gareth Edwards, an Australian citizen and geography lecturer at the University of East Anglia, said that while it was “only right” that universities offer to pay the £65 fee for EU staff obtaining settled status, “the same treatment should be extended to non-EU staff”.

A five-year Tier 2 visa costs individuals £1,220 plus £2,000 for the health surcharge. Families face a multiplication of these costs.

“Immigration costs are presenting a major barrier to non-EU academics wishing to contribute to the UK higher education sector and British society more broadly,” Dr Edwards said. “Support from employers is urgently needed.”

rachael.pells@timeshighereducation.com

Support for immigration fees at Russell Group universities: survey results