Furious colleagues denounce decision that there are ‘no compassionate grounds’ to allow the child to join her mother

Dr Doseline Kiguru, a Kenyan expert in world literature, was overjoyed when she secured a permanent position at Bristol University. But that all changed last week when the Home Office refused to allow her six-year-old daughter to join her.

The decision, which furious colleagues have called “an act of unthinkable cruelty”, will fuel fears that the government is disproportionately blocking academics from the global south from coming to the UK, despite Rishi Sunak’s pledge to make Britain a global “science superpower”.