It is back to the drawing board for countries and universities to compete for the best minds as the world emerges from a pandemic-induced migratory standstill.
In an era of geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China, a number of countries have recently launched fresh academic recruiting drives, visa schemes, and open-door policies in an effort to attract the finest minds.
Even in the near future, there will be greater competition for the best and brightest, according to Imperial College London provost Dr. Ian Walmsley who announced in December a new initiative to hire up to four short-term “visiting professors” each year from historically underrepresented groups.
Smart individuals are the driving force behind fresh ideas and new chances if you want to be in the game, according to him. Countries are increasingly conscious of how new technologies like machine learning will affect the future, and this is driving them to attract more people into the workforce.
The Canadian government has announced plans to hire 1,000 new professors in the fields of life sciences and biomedical research, among other things.
Canada’s Research Chairs Program, established in 2000, now contains 2,285 professorships. It is not just about the competition in Canada, as it was at Imperial College, but also about promoting gender and racial equity among teachers.
UK after Brexit is keen to remain attractive and last July announced a new strategy to “make the UK the most exciting place for researchers to thrive and pursue cutting-edge research,” promising that red tape in research would be cut down on and that opportunities for career advancement would be opened, as well as tackling bullying and harassment.
With this new “high potential individual” visa, which is open to graduates of a top global institution, the government also announced plans for a new “high potential individual” visa, which is open to graduates of “top global universities,” a criteria that remains undefined.
This came after the previous year’s development of a “global talent visa” to encourage Nobel Prize winners and scientists, artists, and IT prodigies supported by organizations like the Royal Society to come to the United States.
Founders, employees, investors, and so-called “digital nomads” would be eligible for a five-year visa under a draft “startup law” Spain presented in December. New businesses will also benefit from lower corporation and income taxes, as well as simplified bureaucracy under the new legislation.
According to OECD’s head of international migration, Jean-Christophe Dumont, visas for “digital nomads” have lately been introduced in Greece, Mexico, and Caribbean countries. Young and highly skilled professionals are seen as the primary targets. Start-up visas are available in 30 OECD countries. As Dumont put it, “It is more or less an open door.”
Since air travel has returned to more normal levels, universities around the world are preying on international students. Finnland pledged in December that it will seek to attract more international students by enhancing their job rights while in school and extending their post-graduation visas.
According to a British Council research from last year, countries other than the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom are becoming increasingly competitive for international students seeking to study in English. More than a quarter of all English-language programs are now available outside of the “Big Four” Anglophone countries, with the number of courses available increasing by 77% since 2017.
As a result of this five-fold gain, China is expected to surpass continental Europe in terms of market share by the end of this decade.
This rivalry for researchers and innovators is not new, in a certain sense. The term “war for talent” was invented by a McKinsey consultant in 1997 and has been used repeatedly since then.
Director of the UK’s Centre for Global Higher Education Simon Marginson noted that “most countries unveil a new scheme, make an announcement or simply implement another round of an existing scheme” every year or two.
Pent-up competition has reportedly been unleashed because of the easing of pandemic restrictions in 2020 and 2021.
Some regulations on talent mobility may have been temporarily suspended due to travel limitations, but Marginson speculates that they may be returning.
For the first time since 2003, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has reported a decrease in permanent migration to OECD nations of more than 30 percent in 2020.
Despite the lack of specific statistics on researcher movement, Dumont claims that highly skilled individuals have been particularly hard hit by the recession.
It seems that students are not interested in crossing boundaries. In 2020, the number of study permits issued in OECD EU nations will be down by 40%, while in the United States and Canada, it will be down by 70%.
There is “certainly a competition” for highly skilled workers once again, according to Dumont, even though migration has been returning to normal, albeit somewhat randomly, since the third quarter of 2020, he explained.
However, Dumont speculated that researchers and students may not be as eager to pack their bags and move as they were before COVID-19. The outbreak has demonstrated that people can conduct research, educate, and learn over the Internet. It would be surprising if things returned to normal in the universities, he predicted.
Geopolitical tension between the U.S. and China, exacerbated by the pandemic, is another factor driving the competition for brains.
Over the past few years, the United States has seen a rise in the number of think-tank and academic papers, calls for action from the Biden administration, and a number of legislation initiatives aimed at preventing the country from losing the global talent battle.
Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, necessitate immediate intervention. The National Science & Technology Council, an advisory organization to the US government, observed in an October 2021 report on quantum technology that roughly half of the country’s graduates in quantum-related fields are foreigners. Around 70 percent stayed in the country for at least 10 years in recent years, to the benefit of American technology development. While “foreign nationals are increasingly being recruited by countries other than the United States,” a recent research claims,
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C., reports that Canada has even gone so far as to advertise on billboards in American innovation hubs: Problems with H-1Bs? “Make a U-turn toward Canada.”
It was concluded by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence that immigration reform was a “national security imperative” in 2013.
Anxiety in the United States is centered on China’s ability to compete in the talent market. According to the CSIS assessment, China’s technology investment is on the cusp of surpassing that of the United States, and the country is already producing more domestically produced science and technology graduates than the United States. According to CSIS, immigration reform is essential to the United States’ long-term strength.
Despite the US IT boom since the 1990s, Washington’s immigration restrictions “have not materially changed since that time,” according to the research. It is estimated that an Indian STEM PhD holder will have to wait 84 years to get a green card under the existing immigration system.
As a result of partisan gridlock in Congress, not much has been accomplished other from loosening some of former President Donald Trump’s immigration restrictions. Senate rules prevented the inclusion of immigration reform in Joe Biden’s large social spending plan in December, and then the bill itself was blocked, at least for the time being.
While this is going on, Beijing has been attempting since the early 2000s to entice Chinese scholars and entrepreneurs educated in the West to return home.
In recent years, the country has also sought to hire foreign scientists, according to Dumont, but this has had limited success in academia.
China’s president, Xi Jinping, stated in December that the government will “exhaust all means” to attract international talent.
Furthermore, according to Remco Zwetsloot, author of the CSIS research, “a lot of China’s focus is also on retaining top talent trained domestically.” Graduate students who had offers to study overseas but had their enrolments postponed or visas rejected would be hired by the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, according to him.
Entry and living conditions could hamper China’s efforts to become an international talent hub at this point.
Even a brief business trip to China has become a nightmare of paperwork and quarantine because of China’s steadfast zero-COVID policy.
Zwetsloot warns that COVID limitations have made it difficult for international students already studying in China to return and continue their studies.
While internet control, pollution and the lack of spoken English “limit” the country’s capacity “to attract people on a large scale,” Dumont says.
