University of York - academic staff from all over the world

August 2008

As one of Britain's top-rated research institutions, the University of York routinely needs to recruit researchers, scientists and academics from all over the world. Some 300 of its 3,000 academic staff originally came from outside Europe.

Having found that the old, paper-based work permit scheme caused delays and extra workload in dealing with overseas recruits, the university successfully registered as a Tier 2 sponsor.

Shared services HR project manager Rob Hargrave explains:

'Moving to a web-based system should make it much quicker and easier to bring in the staff we need. It should give us much faster turnaround on decisions and much greater assurance when dealing with recruits from abroad.

'We found registration for Tier 2 points-based system sponsor status to be relatively straightforward, with full assistance provided by the UK Border Agency local managers. Most importantly, prior to registration, the UK Border Agency were able to offer an initial evaluation of our capabilities to ensure future proper handling of individuals requiring Tier 2 sponsorship.

'The UK Border Agency managers also offered guidance in completing the online registration form. This meant that the UK Border Agency already had evidence of our compliance standards when we completed the online registration, and therefore we were able to complete registration within two weeks without any further visits.'