Home-grown or imported, UK needs to nurture its Nobel-winning skills

Agenda

Professor John O’Keefe used his burst of celebrity to good effect this week.

The Nobel Prize winner for physiology or medicine reminded those who would celebrate Britain’s scientific prowess to beware an immigration policy that threatens to blunt such brilliance.

Having come to Britain to work at University College London after starting his career at McGill University in Canada, the dual British-US citizen and top neuroscientist is ideally placed to speak on the issue. So, too, is his fellow Nobel prizewinner, the Russia-born Sir Andre Geim, who led the discovery of the wonder material graphene in a Manchester laboratory.

Roughly put, we are a country with 1 per cent of the world’s population but responsible for about 10 per cent of the world’s scientific output. If we stripped out the brilliant minds drawn here from overseas, it would be far less.

It makes sense that if we want a world-class economy made up of world-class industries, we are going to need world-class talent. The Government has got in a mess with its plan to cap net migration. By unveiling new scholarships for Indian students to study here, Vince Cable is leading the rearguard action to woo those who have been put off by the perception they are no longer welcome.

Luring in the best and brightest should not lessen efforts to improve the home-grown pipeline of talent. While record numbers have been accepted on to science and technology courses this year, more needs to be done. To date, universities are charging a flat fee for arts and science degrees when teaching science is far more expensive. If we want to tilt the production line of graduates towards science from arts, why not make it cheaper to study?

It is an idea being championed by Alistair Cox, the chief executive of the recruitment group Hays. His argument is that opening up our universities to all comers is the right thing to do. But with degree places so scarce relative to demand, there should be serious consideration given to hiking course prices for those students from outside the European Union. It would not be hard to manage: I bet higher prices would be less of a deterrent than visa uncertainty. And just look at how much American universities get away with charging for the privilege of enrolment.

Those extra funds could be channelled into educating our own children without burdening them with so much debt. Sounds to me like a manifesto pledge for someone.

China’s 13% is going to make a difference

One way or another, China will have a big say in the future of the global commodities industry. It is still the biggest importer of iron ore, although prices are depressed because even the Middle Kingdom can’t keep up with the latest production glut. Such depression helps to explain the timing of resources giant Glencore’s move on rival Rio Tinto.

Glencore’s boss Ivan Glasenberg would rather cut oversupply. That is not all he doesn’t agree on with Rio chairman Jan Du Plessis, who rejected the South African’s takeover overtures.

It isn’t so long ago that Rio attempted to forge closer links with the Chinese. I remember interviewing the president of the Chinese aluminium giant Chinalco five years ago about a controversial £14bn deal that would have lifted China’s stake in Rio to 18 per cent and handed it a minority share in some of the world’s best mines. The arrangement eventually led to a revolt and fell apart.

The Chinalco boss told me he was drawn to the deal for two reasons: Rio’s good assets and its good management. With the benefit of hindsight, could he have been half right? Mr Glasenberg would say so. Rio is in better shape today with new leadership. But by retaining a 13 per cent holding in the company, the Chinese might yet decide whether those good assets will go to a new home.

Crozier could have got away with murder

The plaudits keep coming for Adam Crozier, whose confident leadership of ITV might explain some of its on-air swagger just now. But could the Scot have been bolder to build up ITV’s programme-making arm? There was a time he was linked with the takeover of All3Media, the maker of Midsomer Murders and the teen drama Skins, which has since fallen into American arms. Sure, Mr Crozier has engineered a string of small production deals, but as TV making becomes as blockbuster as the movie industry, what is the opposite of buyers’ regret?