One of Britain’s most respected scientists, Prof Sir Paul Nurse, says the government is “shooting itself in the foot” with its current visa system for research scientists.
Speaking to BBC News, Sir Paul said that high visa fees and financial requirements are discouraging early-career researchers — many of whom are instead choosing countries that actively welcome scientific talent.
Supporters of the existing system argue that higher visa charges help fund the NHS and reflect public concerns about overall immigration levels. But Sir Paul, a Nobel Prize winner and now President of the Royal Society, believes the policy is jeopardising the UK’s long-term scientific and economic competitiveness.
“Having expensive visa costs is shooting yourself in the foot,” he said. “It absolutely doesn’t help in attracting these sorts of people.”
UK losing talent to global competitors
Sir Paul warned that nations such as China and Singapore are intensifying efforts to attract international scientists, while the UK risks pushing them away.
Under current rules, visa applicants must pay the Immigration Health Surcharge, intended to support the NHS, and prove they have sufficient savings to support themselves “without recourse to public funds,” according to Home Office guidance.
Calls for strict migration limits clash with scientific needs
The Centre for Policy Studies, a centre-right think tank, has called for net migration to fall back to the “tens of thousands.”
Its migration specialist Karl Williams agreed that the UK should welcome scientific talent, but insisted the government must still maintain firm overall limits after what he described as the most significant wave of immigration in modern UK history.
“If you say yes to one sector, you start saying yes to others, and you recreate the problems of recent years,” he said.
But Williams acknowledged that making space for scientists would hardly affect the overall numbers. Home Office statistics show that in the most recent quarter, only 323 people received work visas in the natural and social sciences.
“Even if you doubled that, it wouldn’t make a huge difference,” he noted — adding that the UK still lacks a “robust system” for balancing numbers between different sectors.
A fragile science base under pressure
Sir Paul argues that the UK’s research ecosystem is already “fragile,” weakened by high visa costs, inconsistent funding, and immigration rules that he says send a negative message to international scientists.
He urged ministers to rethink policies requiring researchers to pay annual NHS surcharges and prove they have thousands of pounds in savings before entering the country.
“Why do we put hurdles in the way of the people who are actually going to drive our economy?” he asked. “It makes zero sense.”
