One of Britain's most eminent scientists, Professor Sir Paul Nurse, says the government is “shooting itself in the foot” with its research visa system.
Sir Paul told BBC News that high visa fees are putting off aspiring researchers who are instead being welcomed by Britain's economic rivals.
Supporters of the current system say higher visa prices help fund the National Health Service and reflect wider public concerns about immigration.
But the Nobel Prize-winning scientist says Britain's scientific future is under threat.
“Expensive visa costs are shooting yourself in the foot. It doesn't help at all in attracting these people,” Sir Paul said.
Sir Paul, who has taken over as president of the Royal Society, which represents Britain's leading scientists, warns that countries such as China and Singapore are actively attracting foreign scientific talent.
“Why are we putting obstacles in the way of the people who will actually run our economy? This doesn't make any sense.”
The Nobel laureate describes the UK's scientific base as “fragile” due to a combination of high visa prices, lack of funding and the negative signal of current immigration rules.
He is calling on ministers to rethink a system that forces scientists to pay an annual premium to the NHS and prove they have thousands of pounds in their accounts before they arrive.
The official Immigration Health Care Fee guidance explains that visa applicants pay an additional fee to help fund their health care.
Home Office guidance states that applicants must demonstrate a specified level of savings to demonstrate that they can support themselves “without recourse to public funds”.
The Center for Policy Research, a center-right policy think tank, argues in a report Taking back control for net migration to fall back to the “tens of thousands.”
But political expert on the issue Carl Williams broadly agrees with Sir Paul's views but argues that tough blanket restrictions on migration should be maintained following the recent historically large surge in immigration.
“The wave of immigration that we have seen between 2021 and 2024 is probably the most significant demographic event in modern British history… If you say yes to one sector, you start saying yes to other sectors and effectively just recreate the problems of recent years.”
According to Home Office visa statistics, the total number of people granted visas to work in the natural and social sciences was 323 in the last quarter.
“Even if you doubled that figure it wouldn't make much of a difference to the total number of migrants,” Mr Williams told BBC News.
“But there is no reliable system in place to make this work, such as having conversations about where the numbers can be cut to let more scientists in.”
