Tech entrepreneur calls for introduction of 10-year visas for STEM grads
Entrepreneur, early-stage investor and philanthropist Dr Ewan Kirk has called on the Government to introduce a blanket 10-year visa for all STEM graduates in a move to boost entrepreneurship, drive growth, and encourage more of the world’s brightest and best to choose the UK for their graduate and post-graduate STEM education
Kirk made the intervention at an event in Westminster on Wednesday 23 October.
The intervention comes ahead of the Chancellor Rachel Reeves' October budget, and was positioned by Kirk as a fiscally cheap but possibly politically expensive policy, which could shift the dial on innovation and entrepreneurship in the UK economy.
Ewan Kirk is the Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Mathematical Sciences and the founder and Chairman of DeepTech Labs, a deep technology accelerator based in Cambridge. He is also a Non-Executive Director of BAE Systems and the Chair of the Isaac Newton Institute.
Dr Ewan Kirk said: “I want to see the Government introduce a 10-year visa as standard for all graduates from all STEM courses in the UK. This is not a cost to the UK but actually a net fiscal benefit given the tuition fees that these undergraduates and postgraduates bring to the country, but it all depends on whether or not the Government has the political will to do this.
“The Government has rightly nailed its flag to the mast of economic growth, but the country is currently very strapped for cash. So we need to see the delivery of cheap policies that can have an outsized impact. That is exactly what this policy is.
“Universities are education vehicles for producing and developing talent. The UK has one of the best higher education systems in the world – and produces some of the best academics, innovators and entrepreneurs in the world. But we’re voluntarily brain-draining ourselves by forcing this talent out once we’ve created it – through a combination of visa restrictions, expensive applications, and a wider hostile and difficult environment we’ve created for foreign STEM students.
“Growth and productivity have flatlined for too long, and innovation and entrepreneurship are the levers we need to pull to do something about this woeful problem. This is precisely why we need to maintain and unleash the STEM talent emerging from our universities. This is a cheap policy and a sensible one – all it needs is the will to push it through.”
The event, titled ‘Unlocking growth through innovation and entrepreneurship’ and hosted by Labour Renaissance and Progressive Britain, debated a policy paper penned by Kirk, which sets out key policies which Kirk believes could drive growth across all regions of the UK through a focus on catalysing innovation and entrepreneurship.
Kirk moderated the event, at which Chi Onwurah MP, the Chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, gave a keynote speech. Other speakers at the event included George Eaton, Senior Editor of the New Statesman; Duncan Johnson, CEO of Northern Gritstone; Emma Jones CBE, CEO of Enterprise Nation; and Simon Hunt, editor of UKTN.
Chi Onwurah MP added: “There needs to be incentives and examples that we can set to inspire more entrepreneurial cultures in our universities. Many people have mentioned the fact that so many of our talented young people study STEM subjects but then go into other areas of the economy or culture. We should ensure that we are celebrating the influencers and celebrities that tech can provide and the cultural reference points for being a founder or an entrepreneur as well.”
Editor of UKTN Simon Hunt added: “The UK has lots of very good universities that have lots of overseas students who come here, but they are given very strong incentives to leave as soon as they graduate. It’s sort of jaw-dropping in a way. So much of our university resource goes towards educating people from abroad but we are wasting all of that untapped talent.”
CEO of Northern Gritstone Duncan Johnson added: “The UK’s universities are home to world-class research in science and technology and include 19 of the world’s top 100 universities. As an investor into IP-rich UK university spinouts in the North of England, Northern Gritstone is standing on the shoulders of giants. They are at the forefront of innovation and attract ambitious talent in the UK and from overseas. All of this innovation ecosystem is critical to the UK’s growth.”
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