Brexit and UK Higher Education

The future of the 33,000 EU academics (15 per cent of the university staff complement) and the 125,000 EU students presently in UK is as yet unclear. International students remain within the general migration count and cutting the number of student visas is the easiest way for the government to show that it is reducing immigration—though the hostility to migration is primarily directed at work related immigration from Eastern Europe rather than international student mobility. However, it is certain that once EU students in UK are moved from the present income contingent tuition loan tuition arrangements they share with UK students, to full fees paid up front at commercial rates, there will be a dramatic decline in the number of EU students studying in UK. More...