A degree awarded by a UK university
Can I ask about the above "must have" qualification, from your job ad for an internship with MN.
I'm the British mother of a (mini 14 yo) Italian. I have (and am) moved heaven and earth with his education to give him the best possible chance of moving to the UK for HE.
It's blimmin' hard work. And it's going to be very expensive. Very, very expensive.
We are lucky in many respects. We have footholds in the UK that will make the above far less onerous than it would be for many. The bulk of young people in the EU cannot and will not go to uni accross national boarders, because it's not a realistic option given the circumstance into which they were born. Certainly this is truer than ever since British universities became one of the more expensive options in the EU.
So I read the above "within national boarders" styled qualification and must admit I bristled a little. Because whatever the reasoning behind restricting academic qualifications to UK flavour only, the reality is that it automatically discriminates against the vast majority of potential candidates from the rest of the EU.
While I am sure that MNHQ doesn't condone any "let's keep as many nasty forrin types off the application list as possible" sentiments, what you may be unintentionally doing is playing a part in legitimising and embedding in a backdoor route to a UKIP flavoured "British first" style recruitment.
As an additional consideration, some Britons go to the EU for their first degree. Which takes some fairly steely ovaries to pull off. Leave home AND leave your country at a relatively tender age to take your first steps into independence.. while getting to grips with another culture and language. Seems a shame to exclude people who may have exhibited exactly the sort of "can do" attitude most claim they want in their interns.
I am a big fan of British HE. I'd fecking have to be to have put myself what I've put myself through to make sure my son (hopefully) gets a bite at that particular cherry. But even I would place a question mark over any UK degree, from any UK university, automatically being superior to all non UK degrees to extent that a UK based higher eduction is a "must have", and all other nations' higher academic qualifications may not apply.
One more concern, if this sort of favouring of national qualifications becomes normalised, then a sort of certification protectionism/retaliation could become established in the EU. To the potential detriment of many of the approx 2 million Britons living in EU-other.
So... wondered if you might shed some light on the thinking behind that line? Or maybe even reconsider its inclusion in its current form.