academic jobs in Britain- multiple responses

From: Erica Sheen <[email protected]>

Sorry; I think this is a misrepresentation.  As a member of a Department,
and appointment panels, that have short-listed, interviewed and appointed
Americans to temporary and permanent posts at all levels, I'd say that a
good British university would consider applications from the US on their
merits.

Dr Erica Sheen
Senior Lecturer in Film and Literature
Department of English and Related Literature
University of York YO10 5DD UK
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From: Leo Enticknap <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, Sep 22, 2012 at 4:56 AM
Subject: Reply: academic jobs in Britain- multiple responses
To: H-NET List for Scholarly Studies and Uses of Media <[email protected]
>

 Henry M. Taylor writes:

"You're such a charmer, Leo. The long of the
short is: don't come to Britain."

I wasn't suggesting that at all:
simply pointing out that there are issues that need to be taken into
account. Based on anecdotal evidence admittedly, my impression is that
3-4 years ago, a PhD plus a job offer was pretty much all you needed to
get a visa for an academic job if you were a non-EU citizen wanting to
move to the UK. This is now no longer the case - I personally know of
two people in this situation who have been denied visas in the last
year. I find this immensely frustrating: on the one hand there is
nothing we can do about characters such as this one -
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2206255/Latvian-mother-demands-bigger-council-house-despite-raking-34k-benefits.html
- but yet at the same time, highly qualified, dedicated professionals
who would be contributing tens of thousands a year in tax and in other
significant ways to our society and economy are being denied visas. A
non-EU former PhD supervisee of mine has just had to leave the country
after being unable to find a job above the salary threshold needed to
convert a student visa into long-term leave to remain. Given that while
this individual was studying here, they probably invested a six-figure
sum into the economy of this country (once you take into account tuition
fees, living expenses etc.), it's terribly unjust. But that's the
situation as it currently exists, and I didn't feel it fair to encourage
someone to put the several hours of work that a typical university job
application takes (not to mention calling in favours from referees
etc.), if there's a significant risk that it will fall at the first
hurdle.

Leo