Did you know that as long as you graduate from a designated top university in the United States, you can have the opportunity to work and live in the UK for more than 2 years, even if you are not sponsored by a UK employer?
That's right, this is the "most generous visa in history" issued by the British government in May 2022, the High Potential Individual Visa (High Potential Individual Visa)! The only mandatory condition for this visa is that you can graduate from a designated top university, even if you do not have a job offer and employer sponsorship, you can get the opportunity to work and live in the UK for at least two years.
And just recently, the UK government updated the 2023 edition of the list of the world's top universities. This list is not only a reference for students who plan to develop in the UK in the future, but also represents the official recognition of universities by the British government, so it is also the official positioning of university rankings. Liu Mingjun will take you to take a look at the universities on this year's list and the key points~
Image source: Internet
What is the HPI Visa?
The High Potential Individual Visa is a new visa category introduced by the UK government in 2022 to attract graduates from top overseas universities to work in the UK. This visa allows graduates from reputed foreign universities to work in the UK for two years (three years for PhD graduates) and functions as a PSW visa for international students from UK universities.
In other words, if you are an international student who graduated from a top university in the United States, as long as you have an HPI visa, you can go directly to the UK to work and live for at least two years, even if you do not have a job offer. Not only that, but you can also study courses that meet the requirements of your student visa while your visa is valid, and you can also apply to live in the UK if you have a partner or children. After that, HPI visa holders can also apply for an extension of their visa and even have the opportunity to obtain indefinite leave to remain in the UK if certain conditions are met.
Among the application requirements of HPI, the most threshold and even the only hard assessment criterion is academic qualifications, as long as the academic requirements are met, other conditions can be said to be very relaxed.
Specific application requirements
- Age: 18 years old or older
- Qualifications: Graduates must have graduated from a top university outside the UK within the last 5 years (from the date of application) and must have been in the top 50 in two of the three global university rankings in the year of graduation: Times Higher Education, QS and the Academic World University Rankings.
- Language: English proficiency at least CEFR level B1 (equivalent to IELTS 4.0 and above)
- Finance: Applicants need to have at least £1,270 in cash (students who have lived in the UK for more than 12 months before the application date do not need to submit proof of funds)
- Physical examination: Provide the corresponding tuberculosis test report according to the application area
- Visa: Have not applied for a PhD Extension Visa, PSW, High Potential Individual Visa before
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2023 edition of the UK Government's list of the world's top universities
Because of the high requirements for academic qualifications, "whether it is on the list of HPI visa universities" has also become one of the criteria for many students to measure the recognition of the school and future job opportunities.
The UK government has released the 2023 version of the list of top universities in the world, and university graduates on this list are eligible to apply for this year's HPI visa. The specific list of universities that can apply for this visa is:
Image source: Internet
Analysis of HPI list countries
In this year's updated list, many students were shocked that Hong Kong Chinese University in Hong Kong, China, fell off the list for the first time, while Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University made the list for the first time. At the same time, it is worth noting that the United States still has the absolute largest number of universities in most of the world's top universities with 19 universities:
- 19 in the United States
- 5 universities in Chinese mainland (Tsinghua, Peking University, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Zhejiang University)
- 3 in Canada (McGill, UBC, University of Toronto)
- 2 in Singapore (National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University)
- 1 in Hong Kong, China (The University of Hong Kong)
- 1 in Australia (University of Melbourne)
- 2 each in Japan and Switzerland, 1 each in Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden
This also shows that the United States is still the most important and top country in higher education, and choosing to study in the United States unlocks not only the United States but also the world's learning and work opportunities, and the degree of internationalization is also absolutely top in the world.
HPI is on the list of U.S. universities
Among the universities on the list in the United States, there are six Ivy League schools, including Columbia University, Cornell University, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University.
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California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and other three super science and engineering schools:
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and UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego from UC System:
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It also includes many "treasure colleges" that have their own expertise and characteristics, and have a high degree of recognition in the United States, which is very suitable for students to "pick up the leaks": Duke University, University of Washington, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Northwestern University, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, etc.: