Nature:
The British government has quietly introduced a programme of
security checks on foreign students coming to the United
Kingdom for graduate studies in the sciences and engineering.
The Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) began on 1 November. It requires all graduate students from outside the European Economic Area and Switzerland to complete an online questionnaire if they intend to study any of a broad range of scientific disciplines, including biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics. The questionnaire, which includes questions about family background, must be vetted and approved by UK security agencies before students are allowed to apply for visas to enter the country. The list of disciplines includes 41 subject areas, and the government estimates that some 23,000 students will be affected.
