Severe delays in a pre-visa checking scheme are endangering research in vital areas such as medicine, engineering and computer science and undermining the UK’s science superpower ambitions, leading universities have warned.
Waiting times for students and researchers applying to the Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) have significantly increased compared to 2021 causing highly talented researchers to pull out of valuable research projects and businesses to pull investment because programmes are stalled for months while individuals wait for a response.
ATAS checks students and staff applying to work in a wide range of STEM areas at postgraduate level. However, the scheme has been hit by growing delays in 2021 and 2022 with fears that these will only grow this year because of a continuing lack of resource from Government.
A survey of over 1450 students and staff from 21 UK higher education institutions coordinated by the Russell Group of research-intensive universities revealed significant delays in 2021 and 2022, with student application approvals taking over 10 weeks.
