tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/brexit-and-universities-30069/articlesBrexit and universities – The Conversation2018-02-22T08:12:32Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/922062018-02-22T08:12:32Z2018-02-22T08:12:32ZBrexit: German universities among those poised to benefit if researchers and funding shift<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207309/original/file-20180221-132680-1dx523a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C39%2C1968%2C1244&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Humboldt University in Berlin. German universities may emerge as 'winners' from Brexit. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/telemax/7190236226/sizes/l">Tilemahos Efthimiadis</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK is currently <a href="https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/uk-research-and-european-union/role-of-EU-in-funding-UK-research/how-much-funding-does-uk-get-in-comparison-with-other-countries/">the second-largest recipient</a> of competitive research funding from the EU: <a href="https://institutions.ukcisa.org.uk/info-for-universities-colleges--schools/policy-research--statistics/research--statistics/international-students-in-uk-he/#International-students-in-UK-HE-by-domicile,-level-and-mode,%3Cbr%3E-European-Union-(EU)-(excluding-UK)-and-non-EU,-2015-16">6% of students</a> and <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/analysis/staff/national/">17% of staff</a> in UK universities are from other EU countries. Nearly half of academic papers produced by the UK are written in collaboration with at least one international partner – and among the top 20 countries UK academics cooperate the most with, <a href="http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Documents/2017/international-collaboration-uk-post-exit.pdf">13 are in the EU</a>. </p>
<p>While collaboration is important, countries also compete with each other for funding and students. Our <a href="http://www.researchcghe.org/publications/higher-education-and-brexit-current-european-perspectives/">new research</a> has found that academics and institutions across Europe, and particularly in Germany, could make significant gains as Brexit shakes up the European higher education landscape. </p>
<p>In a pilot project involving ten research teams across Europe, my colleagues and I interviewed academic staff, university leaders and officials in Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland and the UK. We wanted to find out what they thought the impact of Brexit would be on their own higher education systems – and what strategies were emerging to respond to various Brexit scenarios.</p>
<p>For those countries where higher education institutions offered tuition in English, such as Ireland, Denmark or the Netherlands, the departure of the UK from the EU may provide an opportunity to increase student numbers from both within and outside the EU.</p>
<p>In most countries, interviewees hoped that the share of EU funding going to the UK would be redistributed after Brexit in a way that advantages them. Some said Brexit provided an opportunity to recruit high-profile academics currently based in the UK and were relatively candid about their hopes to “poach” UK-based academics. </p>
<p>In particular, Germany – already the main recipient of EU research funding, and the most frequently chosen partner in large research bids – emerges as a significant potential “winner” from Brexit. Academics at universities in both northern and eastern Europe were planning to reinforce their existing partnerships with German institutions ahead of Brexit. Plans were also made to reinforce non-EU collaborations.</p>
<p>Despite their smaller populations, Scandinavian countries are also well placed in the competition for funding, students and influence at EU level. However, countries in central, eastern and southern Europe such as Poland, Portugal and Hungary did not see themselves as strong players or influencers. The people our colleagues interviewed in these countries felt that their countries were unlikely to benefit from Brexit as much as the bigger players such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain.</p>
<p>In spite of these hopes and emerging strategies, the potential departure of the UK was largely perceived as a net loss for research and education across Europe, and the people we interviewed were keen to express their solidarity to their UK colleagues.</p>
<h2>Impact on British universities</h2>
<p>The research we did in the UK revealed very varied perspectives on the future. Some interviewees were optimistic that the UK would have no difficulty in maintaining existing partnerships or attracting new collaborations due to its status after Brexit. But others were extremely anxious that jobs, departments and institutions would disappear. Anxiety was particularly noticeable in the humanities. </p>
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<p>Early career researchers felt particularly vulnerable as their employment largely depends on the availability of research grants. The prospect of a hard Brexit complicated their perceptions of their future in the UK and in the higher education sector in particular. But this climate of fear did not only affect researchers based in the UK – the fear of a net loss of early career positions across the EU as a result of Brexit was also echoed by early career researchers interviewed elsewhere.</p>
<p>Interviewees across the countries we studied expressed a willingness to
continue collaborating with UK partners but were also concerned about the excessive administrative burdens that such cooperation would entail. Due to the continued uncertainty about the future position of the UK, participants were reluctant to involve British partners in future bids for EU research funding.</p>
<h2>European research under threat</h2>
<p>Concerns for the quality and reputation of European research were also widespread. The UK has played a significant role in enhancing European research – whcih has brought benefits to all members. The UK is an important partner for research teams across Europe – several key <a href="https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/uk-research-and-european-union/role-of-EU-in-funding-UK-research/how-does-eu-fund-research-facilities-major-equipment/">pan-European research facilities </a> such as the <a href="http://www.hiper-laser.org/">High Power Laser Energy Research Facility</a> or the <a href="http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/">European Social Survey</a> are based in the UK, and it is a popular destination for students and staff from many EU countries. The UK is also perceived as a “portal” to the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/index_en.htm">European Research Area</a> for non-EU students and researchers. </p>
<p>There was a fear that Brexit, together with other euroscepticism across the EU, gave a negative image of Europe and posed a threat to the European project at large. In particular in countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands where anti-EU movements had gained some ground, interviewees wondered whether a “good deal” for the UK would be beneficial. Or whether it would actually encourage other countries to leave, with the risk of dismantling the EU. </p>
<p>Brexit is likely to affect all universities across the EU in some way. In some countries, it’s felt that smaller institutions and specific disciplines such as modern languages are likely to suffer more than others. </p>
<p>A number of participants across the countries we studied were eager to continue collaborating with their UK-based colleagues, no matter the outcome of the Brexit negotiations. As one German interviewee said: “If politicians decide to limit internationalisation in academia, academics resist and do the opposite”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92206/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aline Courtois is a research associate at the ESRC-HEFCE Centre for Global Higher Education at UCL Institute of Education. The UK research was funded by the Institute of Education. The European partners conducted their case studies on a self-funded basis. </span></em></p>New cross-European study shows how Brexit will affect higher education beyond the UK.Aline Courtois, Research Associate, UCL Institute of Education, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/879002017-11-23T11:41:56Z2017-11-23T11:41:56ZDavid Willetts interview: ‘We need a broader view of what constitutes a good university’<p><em>David Willetts was minister for universities and science in the coalition government from 2010 to 2014, when the cap on tuition fees was raised to £9,000 per year in England and Wales. In his new book, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-university-education-9780198767268?cc=gb&lang=en&">A University Education</a>, he provides a defence of that policy following intense recent debate about it.</em> </p>
<p><em>Willetts, who now sits in the House of Lords and is also the executive chair of the <a href="http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/">Resolution Foundation</a>, sees the fee rise as pivotal in increasing the number of people benefiting from higher education, a process he is keen to see continue further. But the book goes far beyond the tuition fee debate. It provides an engaging and authoritative guide to “the university” as an institution which aims to instil “values of pursuing truth through reason and evidence” – values of particular importance in the current context of “fake news” and populist politics.</em> </p>
<p><em>But while universities may share this overarching aim, Willetts also argues that we need to celebrate diversity in our higher education (HE) sector, rather than a single idea of what constitutes a top university. I sat down with him for The Conversation.</em></p>
<p><strong>Karen Rowlingson: You show, in the book, that university education benefits society as well as individuals. So should the funding of universities also be better balanced between society and individual students? Would one possibility be to reduce the fee and raise extra through general taxation and then change the repayment mechanism so that those on higher earnings pay more back?</strong></p>
<p>David Willetts: I think actually the way that you can reflect and put in public support is different and I identify the ways we do. First of all … we should meet the extra cost of higher cost subjects. Secondly, students who for whatever reason … may find it harder to benefit from HE, for example disabled students, students from tough backgrounds, there’s still some funding – not as much as there was – but there’s still some funding for the extra costs of those students </p>
<p>And then thirdly, writing off the repayments from people with low incomes… So I think that’s a well-designed, well-targeted way of using public resource to support people in higher education. </p>
<p><strong>But still the £9,250 a year fee is a very large share of the cost and is it fair that younger generations have to pay so much more for their higher education than older generations did?</strong> </p>
<p>I understand that argument. The good news is that I think most 18-year-olds do understand the reality that it is not an amount of money they have to pay up front. The real thing that matters is it’s 9% of earnings above £21,000 – of course that’s going up to 9% of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/oct/01/tuition-fee-repayment-earnings-threshold-rise-to-25000">earnings above a threshold of £25,000</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Is that something you agree with, changing the threshold?</strong></p>
<p>Well, I personally didn’t think that 9% on earnings above £21,000 was unduly onerous. It meant that if you were earning £25,000 a year you were paying back 9% on the final £4,000 so that was £360 a year, £30 a month. If there were resources available to help people in HE, increasing the repayment threshold would not have been my priority. It’s good that graduates are going to be paying back a lower proportion of their earnings, but as I say, I think one could have spent the money in other ways. </p>
<p><strong>You talk about graduate tax in the book and that’s one alternative that’s been suggested. What are your thoughts on that?</strong> </p>
<p>Basically what we’ve got is a repayable education voucher for HE. You’re given an education voucher and told, take it to the university. The university has to decide whether or not to admit you and then if you end up in a well-paid job, we’ll gradually reclaim it off you. I know the graduate tax is now back on the agenda, but it does have a range of defects. </p>
<p>First of all it brings the whole system back into tax and public spending. And it’s no longer the case that the individual is bringing the resource to educate him or her, instead it’s coming as public expenditure out of central government. My view is that has never worked to the advantage of higher education, it’s always ended up being at the back of the queue.</p>
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<p>Secondly, you will expect some people to pay back a lot more than the cost of their higher education … That means if I am studying economics at the LSE or law at Oxford and some others which we know about, there are now massive penalties for me to study in the UK rather than going abroad. You’re saying, by virtue of having done this course, you will be paying back a very large amount of money.</p>
<p>Thirdly, it doesn’t solve today’s funding problem. The big design question is do you collect it off current graduates? There’s nothing in the system that tells the Inland Revenue I’m a graduate, so you need some massive exercise, to do a sort of Doomsday Book exercise, to try and work out the people in the country who are graduates. … You can only roll it in for future generations, so once you say it’s for current students and their successors, it doesn’t solve a problem for about ten years.</p>
<p>The last Labour government, encouraged by Gordon Brown, looked at it very carefully and all the people who were involved in the debate then, including Andrew Adonis … concluded that a graduate tax is a bad idea. So I don’t think it’s a flyer. Labour tried to make it work. All three political parties when they’ve actually been in office have ended up with this model that we’ve got. </p>
<p><strong>When I talk to my own students it’s the level of maintenance support which is a key problem. What do you think we should do about that?</strong> </p>
<p>I completely agree with you … The pressure point is cash to live on while you’re at university. And in terms of access that’s the pressure point. When I was in office we increased the total amount of maintenance cash available for students and it’s gone up a bit more since. But … if there were any spare resource around, my priority would be more cash for students to help with their living costs while at university.</p>
<p><strong>You talk about the benefits of the current system in increasing the numbers going to university. Do you think there is any kind of limit to the numbers of people that should go to university?</strong> </p>
<p>I don’t believe in government setting a target. So I don’t believe in the Blair 50% target [of people going to university] but I do absolutely think that in modern societies for deep social, cultural and economic reasons, the numbers going to university have increased, are increasing and ought not to be diminished. So if I look forward I see no reason why it should stop at 50%. </p>
<p>And also, this is a good thing, we’ve <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/sep/28/almost-half-of-all-young-people-in-england-go-on-to-higher-education">achieved 50% for women</a>. We’ve not achieved 50% for men and so I think it would be good if men could catch up with the academic achievements of women. </p>
<p><strong>Should we move towards a more <a href="http://www.hepi.ac.uk/2017/07/20/new-report-calls-comprehensive-universities-improve-social-mobility/">comprehensive system of universities</a> that people could go to locally, perhaps?</strong> </p>
<p>I think the English model is distinctive and I think it’s a good thing that it’s distinctive. The idea of going away from home to university I’m sure goes back to the Oxford and Cambridge model and then this extraordinary 600 years when they were the only two English universities suppressing attempts at creating other universities. Not until the 1830s did we get any further universities in England. </p>
<p>Now one of the effects of that was to establish very clearly the idea you went away from home to university and it is a really important rite of passage, especially in England. And I think it’s a kind of managed transition to adulthood, it’s about the most powerful effective form that the modern Western world has got. </p>
<p>So I do understand the value of people leaving home to go to university. I wouldn’t want to see a situation where poor kids stayed at home and rich kids went away to university. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195814/original/file-20171122-6016-1emfzm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195814/original/file-20171122-6016-1emfzm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195814/original/file-20171122-6016-1emfzm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195814/original/file-20171122-6016-1emfzm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195814/original/file-20171122-6016-1emfzm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195814/original/file-20171122-6016-1emfzm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195814/original/file-20171122-6016-1emfzm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Other doors are available.</span>
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<p><strong>You talk a lot about digital innovation in education … will that help mature students who are less likely to go to university now? And how do we reflect on that with the experience of the Open University at the moment which is going through a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/oct/20/open-university-strike-ou-regional-centres-moocs">really difficult time</a>, but which is digitally advanced?</strong> </p>
<p>I always kind of plead guilty on this, that one of the things in my time as universities minister that I most regret is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/part-time-students-feel-squeezed-out-by-universities-obsessed-with-teenagers-47447">decline</a> in the number of mature, part-time students. It was not the plan. What I thought we would achieve is by extending more fee loans to more mature students that they would take them out. But actually the evidence is that whilst the classic young person going to university to get their first degree understands and is comfortable with the graduate repayment scheme; that’s not the case for mature students … That’s where we both need technological innovation and we also need more funding. </p>
<p><strong>You challenge the predominant, uni-dimensional hierarchy of universities and suggest that we should recognise the strength of some universities outside of the Russell Group. Can you say more about this?</strong></p>
<p>One of the themes running through the book is that our understanding of what constitutes a good university is incredibly limited. When you look at the ones that get to the top of the conventional rankings, you do it above all by high-quality research and high prior attainment of your students. That is one model and it’s a good model. But my frustration is people think that means that if you’re a university that focuses more on teaching than on research and which takes students with lower priority attainments, that means you’re a less good university. It doesn’t. It means you’ve got a distinct and different mission. </p>
<p>So I’m trying to get people to have a broader view of what constitutes a good university. There are a range of ways of being world class and taking kids with lower attainment – pushing them forward and transforming their life chances with strong links to local businesses is a fantastic way of being a world class university. </p>
<p><strong>So how can we do that in practice? Shall we have different kinds of league tables?</strong> </p>
<p>Whatever the issues around the <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/lt/tef/">Teaching Excellence Framework</a> (TEF) – and of course ministers have made clear from the beginning that it’s a kind of first go, it’s open to revision and amendment – the crucial prize of the TEF is at last we’ve got a league table that doesn’t have exactly the same structure as every other league table. Although it is very tough really to measure teaching, nevertheless I think as the big data revolution reaches HE we will have increasing opportunities to do so. </p>
<p><strong>Given that there are already many different universes serving different missions, do you think there’s a gap? If a new university were to be set up tomorrow to meet today’s needs, what would that new university look like?</strong> </p>
<p>The teaching of STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] would be a very strong candidate because as there is public funding for the higher-cost subjects and STEM of course comes with higher cost, eligibility for that public funding has become a kind of barrier to entry for new providers in this area. And that’s particularly acute with medical schools which have very high costs and where hitherto there’s been a kind of restriction on the numbers of medical students and NHS-linked medical schools. There’s an Aston initiative on medical education, and I think Buckingham are trying to get into medical education. </p>
<p>And then on engineering there’s this <a href="http://www.olin.edu/">Olin model</a> which is a different approach to engineering that is willing to take on people who may not have got A-levels in maths and physics. That’s also very interesting. Engineering is a case study of why I care so much about broadening education and not having so much early specialisation. If you say in order to do engineering at university you have to have A-levels in physics and maths, you’re down to about 4% of teenagers being eligible to do engineering. If classics was still working on the basis you’ve got to have A-levels in Latin and Greek, classics would have died as a discipline in English universities, but was obliged to change it sort of as the A-levels declined. </p>
<p><strong>What about the idea of <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/sites/default/files/the_challenge-driven_university.pdf">challenge-led universities</a> which bring together disciplines across the STEM/non-STEM divide to try to tackle major problems globally and nationally?</strong></p>
<p>It’s not that I think that STEM is the only route to truth. The two cultures problem in England is acute, unusually acute, because of early specialisation. </p>
<p>I argue that universities have quite a high part of the responsibility for early specialisation because they’re looking for people who already know a lot about a very narrow range of subjects. [That is] such a contrast with America where the most popular single course specified when you apply for an American university is undeclared. </p>
<p>As soon as you think about a university recruitment system where the biggest single group of people applying are called undeclared, and you think through how a classic English university would operate if the biggest single category of students had not yet decided what they’re going to study, you realise the incredible power of the particular way we do admissions in England. </p>
<p><strong>How do you think Brexit is going to impact on universities?</strong></p>
<p>Well, I was a Remainer and there clearly are massive risks for universities from Brexit. On the research side … the fact that they’ve just started the FP9 discussions in Brussels <a href="http://www.researchresearch.com/news/article/?articleId=1371299">with no British representatives</a> around the table as they start shaping the research priorities for that next seven year programme in the EU is so dispiriting and frustrating.</p>
<p>For student recruitment, the evidence is a bit more complex because of course one of the results of Brexit has been a fall in the value of the pound. So that has meant we look cheaper if you’re coming from abroad. Now on the other hand, EU students may lose their access to loans but we don’t know that. You could imagine in the negotiations about the future long-term relationship that we say we will extend loans to British students to study in the EU in return for EU students having loans from their government, or from us, or some combination to come and study here. So I think that it is all up for negotiation and we must hope that we can signal that we’re open to students and academics from around the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87900/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Rowlingson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As a minister in the coalition government, Willetts introduced £9,000 tuition fees. In an interview as he publishes a new book, he says the system is well-designed and fair.Karen Rowlingson, Professor of Social Policy, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/786872017-06-22T13:35:19Z2017-06-22T13:35:19ZHow European academics are feeling about life in Britain a year after Brexit vote<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174984/original/file-20170621-30227-enjc2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Worrying times. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">via shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“I remember very distinctly the morning when the final counting was done,” recalled Joaquín de Navascués Melero. “My wife and I – she is also Spanish and she doesn’t have a British passport – we were sitting in the kitchen after breakfast and saying, ‘well which country do we go to now’?” </p>
<p>For de Navascués Melero, a research fellow in stem cell biology at Cardiff University who has worked in the UK for nine years, the vote for Brexit came as a shock. Since then his life in the UK has been characterised by uncertainty and a heightened consciousness of his own “alienness”. He told me that for him “the most straining point is not knowing how the social situation is going to evolve: We are already seeing an increase in hate crime – that is all very worrying.”</p>
<p>As an academic from another EU country – though he also has a British passport – de Navascués Melero’s experience is not unique. In an <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/great-escape-boltholes-for-academics-fleeing-brexit-and-trump">online survey</a> published by the Times Higher Education magazine in March, academics cited the hostile climate generated by the rhetoric around Brexit and a related sense of “diminished psychological safety” as the main reason for considering leaving the UK. The future rights for EU citizens were also a key concern. Of the 131 who responded, 53% said they were actively looking to leave the UK, while 88% indicated they were more likely to consider doing so in the medium to long term. </p>
<p>In a separate <a href="https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/8584/Academics-survey-shows-little-support-for-HE-Bill-amid-Brexit-brain-drain-fears">YouGov survey</a> for the University and College Union (UCU) published in January, three-quarters (76%) of EU academics indicated that they were more likely to consider leaving the UK as a result of Brexit. A <a href="http://sruk.org.uk/documents/brexit/brexit_declaration_en.pdf">survey</a> by the Society of Spanish Researchers in the UK found that 43% of their members would consider leaving.</p>
<p>Attracting and retaining academics from other EU countries is one of the major issues facing the university sector after Brexit – fears have been raised of a potential “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39693954?SThisFB">brain drain</a>”. The latest indications point to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/03/brexit-universities-academics-eu-rights?CMP=share_btn_fb">a rise</a> in EU academics leaving British universities.</p>
<p>There are three key reasons for this, which were highlighted by representatives of the university sector in <a href="http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/education-committee/the-impact-of-exiting-the-european-union-on-higher-education/written/42873.html">evidence</a> to a recent House of Commons <a href="https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmeduc/683/68302.htm">select committee inquiry</a>. First, the uncertainty over future status and rights of EU nationals in the UK for both staff and their dependants. Second, uncertainty over future access to EU research funding and, third, the perception that the UK is becoming a less welcoming place for people from abroad. </p>
<p>In order to understand more about the impact of the Brexit vote, I spoke with three fellow academics who, like me, come from another EU country: <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gianluca-demartini-151886">Gianluca Demartini</a> from Italy, a data scientist at the University of Sheffield who has worked in the UK for three years, <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/monica-giulietti-105007">Monica Giulietti</a> also from Italy, an economist at Loughborough University who has worked in the UK for 23 years and the aforementioned <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/joaquin-de-navascues-155980">Joaquín de Navascués Melero</a> from Spain. I asked them to share their personal experiences of how the result of the EU referendum has affected them. Their stories highlight the issues raised by the university sector and provide insight into the personal impact of the climate in the UK since the referendum – and the shift in social status of people from other EU countries living in Britain.</p>
<h2>It’s personal</h2>
<p>“All of a sudden the world has changed,” de Navascués Melero told me. “You may not perceive it all the time, but it’s there … you are more conscious of your alienness after Brexit.” </p>
<p>But the daily experience at university has not changed, as Giulietti, the Italian economist, emphasised: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the kind of environment where we work, we are certainly privileged that there is a sense of being valuable. There is an international environment where it is just normal to have people of all different nationalities. You are respected for your role and no one questions your nationality. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>All the academics I spoke to said they felt valued by their universities. The concern is with what is going on outside this “bubble”. Nationalist and anti-immigration rhetoric in public debate and media coverage has generated a sense of an increasingly alienating climate for those now categorised under a broad label of “EU migrants” and “<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-bill-lord-tebbit-right-eu-nationals-foreigners-comments-a7606456.html">foreigners</a>”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174987/original/file-20170621-27026-1odyja3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174987/original/file-20170621-27026-1odyja3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174987/original/file-20170621-27026-1odyja3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174987/original/file-20170621-27026-1odyja3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174987/original/file-20170621-27026-1odyja3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174987/original/file-20170621-27026-1odyja3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174987/original/file-20170621-27026-1odyja3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Life can be less friendly outside the university bubble.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">via shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While it is often stated that EU migrants are valued for their contribution to society, the use of these terms define them as outsiders. This form of <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0011392100048003003">social categorisation</a> can have a significant impact on people’s lives and sense of belonging. As the anthropologist Fredrik Barth (1969) argued in his <a href="http://www.waveland.com/browse.php?t=165">seminal work on ethnic relations</a>, distinctions between people that emerge at the societal level, whether based on nationality, ethnicity or religion, have implications for everyday social interactions.</p>
<p>“It made me feel more different,” Giulietti told me. “Whereas in the past I never had to think about it, I was just a person doing a job and bringing up a family.” In the wake of the Brexit vote she “started questioning things, questioning whether I belong” – even within her British family. She found this feeling, and the new sense of vulnerability that came with it, very surprising. </p>
<p>“I’m a self-confident person,” Giulietti explained, “I don’t easily feel vulnerable, I know I can defend myself in any situation”. But now she feels “more vulnerable” than she has ever been. “Despite the fact that … as a rational person, I know that there is nothing dangerous, there is nothing really to worry about, but things are different.”</p>
<p>Demartini, the data scientist, talked about how he could feel this where he lives – a small town outside Sheffield. He said that when talking to people in the shop for instance, “you get questions, people asking when I’m going to be leaving and this sort of thing. It has happened to me and it has happened to a lot of my colleagues”. </p>
<p>De Navascués Melero said people in the Spanish community had started wondering if they could speak freely in Spanish to their children. “We do, we haven’t changed that, but we look around, just in case,” he said. Other European academics <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2017/03/07/abused-in-the-street-invited-to-a-brexit-bbq-the-limbo-of-being-german-in-the-uk/">have spoken</a> about being abused in the street for speaking German.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Giulietti raised a different, but related reaction: “The argument everyone makes is: it’s not about you, it’s about the others.” But as she says, there may be another family just down the road telling another European person it’s not about you. “So it could be about me. It depends on who is looking.” </p>
<h2>Cosmopolitan to the core</h2>
<p>The sense of alienation potentially produced by such a climate can change the way you see yourself in relation to society. Until last year, Giulietti was a member of a panel of technical experts for a government department. She was in the process of interviewing for the same role for the following year, but decided to pull out. This was in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37561035">the aftermath of statements</a> by the home secretary, Amber Rudd, at the Conservative Party conference in October 2016 about further curbs on immigration and proposals such as companies having to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/oct/05/amber-rudd-defends-proposal-to-make-firms-reveal-foreign-staff-numbers">publish the number of international staff they employ</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I had been mulling over it because of the rhetoric about foreign workers generally. Basically this idea that all of a sudden people are no longer welcome. Useful members of society, who have been contributing, are no longer relevant. Why would I want to help make decisions for a society where I’m no longer considered a fully functioning member. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Statements by leading Brexiteers such as Michael Gove that the country had had <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/3be49734-29cb-11e6-83e4-abc22d5d108c?mhq5j=e3">enough of experts</a> contributed to this feeling. She said: “As an intellectual, as an expert, you are not allowed to talk. Yes, the experts should be challenged, but they should not be kept quiet.”</p>
<p>The Leave campaign and the debate in parts of <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2017/05/16/acrimonious-and-divisive-the-role-the-media-played-in-brexit/">the media</a> was also rife with strong appeals to patriotism. “The concept that seems to be underpinning that rhetoric is difficult to accept,” said Giulietti. “This idea that you have to be attached to the place where you were born.” </p>
<p><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-0374.2010.00298.x/full">Research</a> has shown that migrating career professionals from a range of occupational groups often identify with some sense of being “citizens of the world”. <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0018726717714042">My own research</a> shows that those who develop such a cosmopolitan identity have a strong preference for social environments that are open, diverse and international and tend to feel alienated when the opposite is the case. They embrace the idea of transcending national attachments, but this does not mean they are rootless. They also maintain their national identities as part of a broader cosmopolitan sense of community. </p>
<p>As Giulietti put it: “I see myself as Italian, European, part of a bigger picture than what is being proposed here.” She feels that, in the current climate, the message seems to be that there is something wrong with what she was trying to achieve by going elsewhere to seek opportunities. </p>
<p>De Navascués Melero also emphasised that he is attached to Spain, but not that strongly. “I’m Spanish the same way I’m a man or heterosexual or white – it’s an accident of birth. I build my identity through what I do, not what was bestowed upon me.” As a result of this personal stance he said he found it “uncomfortable to be in a country where identity is something that goes with the accent, with the colour of your skin and with your culture”. He added: “I may be over-dramatic, but unfortunately that is something that is happening worldwide, it’s not just in the UK.”</p>
<h2>Will I stay or will I go?</h2>
<p>Demartini has decided to leave. He is in the process of moving to Australia where he has accepted a new position. He told me that the decision was a complex one.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m not saying that I’m leaving because of Brexit, that would be too strong a statement, but out of many reasons this is one as well. The plan was to stay for a longer period of time. So things have changed. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>De Navascués Melero is staying for now but hinted that his longer-term intention might also change. “We will see how things evolve.” Putting things into perspective, he said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If we were going through this in Spain, for instance, my immediate reaction would be to leave the country as soon as I would have a professional opportunity – and in that sense I feel the same in Britain. So if things become too untenable and this is a society that turns its back on reason, I would just leave. I’m not going to subject my family to that. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Giulietti, who has a British husband and two daughters, leaving is not on the cards – although she has started to wonder whether this is an environment where she wants to work. Whereas before she would not have thought about moving back to the continent, she now considers it a possibility. “To be honest for many of us there are other opportunities in more fulfilling environments, so I started doubting whether I did want to continue. Certainly, I decided I didn’t want to work for the government.”</p>
<p>The life and career choices of highly skilled migrants tend to be closely associated with the characteristics of the social and organisational environments where they live and work. The professionals who participated in <a href="http://arro.anglia.ac.uk/701781/">my research study</a> actively sought environments that were culturally diverse, international and where cosmopolitan values of openness, tolerance and mutual respect were collectively upheld. </p>
<h2>Citizens’ rights and research funding</h2>
<p>Uncertainty related to future immigration status and rights is also a significant part of the issue – although the impact of this varies depending on individual circumstances. Giulietti decided to apply for permanent residency, but was rejected in the first instance – a relatively common <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/feb/27/rejections-eu-citizens-seeking-uk-residency">occurrence</a>. Along with the extent of the bureaucratic burden, the process can end up feeling like <a href="https://twitter.com/MazzucatoM/status/862927050214080512">an insult</a> as <a href="https://colinrtalbot.wordpress.com/2017/01/25/brexit-and-eu-academics-in-the-uk-breaking-up-is-hard-to-do/">other academics</a> have highlighted. This further contributes to the perception of the UK as an unwelcoming place. </p>
<p>Successful in her second attempt, Giulietti is now in a position to be able to apply for British citizenship. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I feel in the short term it has to be done. I think in light of the fact that I don’t know what is coming around the corner – what if I’m diagnosed with an illness, what if I had to retire? I think it’s better to address it while at least I know what the rules of the game are. Yes, they are likely to sort it out, but it could be in a way that is even more difficult or complicated for all we know. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are other factors influencing the career choices of academics, particularly <a href="https://theconversation.com/brexit-the-aftermath-for-universities-and-students-61698">access to EU research funding</a> and collaboration, which Brexit has also made uncertain. “If it becomes difficult for the things we need to do in order to have a career, a meaningful, successful career, then I could question the professional choices and also become more open-minded about alternative options,” said Giulietti, who described to me how an EU funding application she was involved in with partners in other European countries collapsed after the Brexit vote. Other scientists have described being <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/jul/12/uk-scientists-dropped-from-eu-projects-because-of-post-brexit-funding-fears">dropped</a> from research collaborations and <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/how-brexit-is-changing-the-lives-of-eight-researchers-1.21714?WT.feed_name=subjects_research-management#/scaife">hesitations</a> about applying for EU funding proposals.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"876930207642521601"}"></div></p>
<p>University leaders have called for science and research <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39900509">to be prioritised</a> in Brexit negotiations – in terms of future rights of EU staff and students, access to EU research funding and ensuring that Brexit does not result in barriers to research collaboration. </p>
<p>In a speech in March, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michael Barnier, <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-17-723_en.htm">emphasised</a> the top priority of citizen’s rights on both sides and also indicated the importance of research collaboration. The government’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/589191/The_United_Kingdoms_exit_from_and_partnership_with_the_EU_Web.pdf">Brexit white paper</a> set out similar priorities. It also stated that “we will remain an open and tolerant country, and one that recognises the valuable contribution migrants make to our society.” </p>
<h2>An open society?</h2>
<p>While citizens’ rights and the framework for research collaboration are concrete matters for Brexit negotiators, if Britain wants to remain an open and welcoming country, politicians need to take action. Future immigration law and policy should move away from the government’s current <a href="https://www.freemovement.org.uk/hostile-environment-affect/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hostile-environment-affect">hostile environment for migrants</a> and the singular focus on <a href="https://theconversation.com/cut-immigration-and-the-uks-economic-prospects-will-just-get-worse-heres-why-78379">cutting immigration numbers</a>. More also needs to be done to prevent discrimination as well as hate speech and hate crime. And there would need to be a change in rhetoric on immigration and less focus on playing politics with identity. </p>
<p>Brexit will influence the rights, social status, identity, family life and careers of millions of people whose life is intertwined with free movement. The big question is how. For some EU citizens in Britain, the shift in social status brought about by the Brexit vote and the rhetoric around it is profoundly unsettling. It goes to the core of subtle but fundamental matters of belonging, particularly for those who have, perhaps for decades, been fully integrated members of British society.</p>
<p>My own experience echoes much of what the academics I spoke to shared. What I felt that day after the Brexit vote was a sense of loss. Free movement and the rights that come with it has fundamentally shaped my life. Because of it I was able to study, build a career, make a life and a family across several European countries. My British husband is also set to lose his EU citizen rights. For us, this is about what it means to live a life that transcends national borders. Freedom of movement makes it possible in a way that is unique. As a European family we cherish this more than we realised. </p>
<p>Now in light of another unexpected election result, the political debate on Brexit seems to be opening up and shifting. It is becoming even less clear what Brexit will mean and <a href="https://theconversation.com/britains-brexit-options-a-refresh-79364?sr=3">other models</a> are again being discussed. I feel a glimmer of hope, not just for openness and tolerance, but also – however far-fetched – for the preservation of freedom of movement for generations to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78687/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Irene Skovgaard-Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When the political becomes personal.Irene Skovgaard-Smith, Senior lecturer, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/735482017-03-08T12:30:50Z2017-03-08T12:30:50ZWhy British academics are guilty of groupthink<p>According to <a href="https://www.adamsmith.org/research/lackademia-why-do-academics-lean-left">recent studies</a>, the majority of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/03/02/eight-ten-british-university-lecturers-left-wing-survey-finds/">British</a> and <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/10/24/survey-finds-professors-already-liberal-have-moved-further-left">American academics</a> are to be found on the left wing of the political landscape. It is <a href="https://www.adamsmith.org/research/lackademia-why-do-academics-lean-left">estimated</a> that up to 80% of professional academics are left-liberals, leading to warnings of the dangers of groupthink in universities.</p>
<p>The current anti-Brexit, <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/comment/brexit-pity-parties-show-how-out-of-touch-academia-is">pity party</a> mood within UK universities is part of this culture of academic groupthink <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/european-union-referendum-nine-out-of-ten-university-staff-back-remain">prevalent in the higher education sector</a>. Academic unions and senior university managers have, in a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-37286961">rare show of shared values</a>, sought to console those seemingly traumatised by the result of a democratic referendum. </p>
<p>One obvious possible reason for the apparent lack of EU naysayers within universities is the inverse correlation <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2016/jun/24/the-areas-and-demographics-where-the-brexit-vote-was-won">researchers have found</a> between the level of educational attainment and the likelihood of voting to leave the EU. It is reassuring to think that ignorance and bigotry are the cause of all our woes. But what about the nonintellectual reasons why academics might support membership of the EU so uncritically? </p>
<p>When experts are viewed with such <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/10/michael-goves-guide-to-britains-greatest-enemy-the-experts/">famous disdain</a>, perhaps academics should ask themselves why there is such a large gap between “town and gown”. Technocrats of all political hues have done very well from the EU gravy train. But the European working class continues to suffer from the problems caused by the Euro’s status as a secular sacrament. </p>
<p>Yet the academic community appears unquestioningly to support the EU. There is a worryingly lazy assumption made by most left leaning, social democrat academics that support of the EU automatically qualifies as a form of progressive politics. This is even though, as a concept, the EU’s core belief in the free movement of labour is more akin to neo-liberal economic orthodoxy. And transient capital tends to work as a weapon against working class pay and conditions. </p>
<p>Consider the day to day <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2013/07/22/the-growing-economic-and-ideological-breach-between-northern-and-southern-eu-countries-is-pushing-europe-towards-a-perfect-storm/">destructive consequences</a> of EU economic policy on the people of southern Europe. This makes the union’s purportedly internationalist values appear seriously questionable. </p>
<p>You don’t need to be an economics professor to trace the links between the abandonment of variable exchange rates across the Eurozone and a consequent inability to address regional unemployment. <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Unemployment_statistics">The EU’s own statistics</a> for all time high youth unemployment from 2013-2015 tell their own sorry tale. In Spain, it has been as high as 55.5%, in Italy 42.7% and in Greece, 58.3%.</p>
<p>We also shouldn’t forget that the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/dec/13/eu-ireland-lisbon-treaty">EU has required national electorates</a> to vote on significant issues more than once, until they produce the correct result. This forcefully contradicts any claims that it is a union underpinned by a genuine commitment to democracy. </p>
<p>But perhaps it is no surprise that academics working in profoundly undemocratic, process-driven, hyper-bureaucratic institutions feel such a strong affinity with the EU. One explanation lies in the extent to which the idea of academic research as the pure pursuit of knowledge has been systematically undermined in recent decades. </p>
<p>Academics are now groomed from their early careers to comply with a whole series of diktats and an assessment of the quality and worthiness of their research. Since it has become second nature to subordinate one’s professional judgement to process-driven conformity, academics can seamlessly merge their own interests with the EU’s labyrinthine funding structures and bureaucratic world view. </p>
<p>Researchers are trained to analyse data and derive conclusions from the patterns they find. Yet despite plenty of damning data, the EU and its credo of the <a href="http://www.europeanpolicy.org/en/european-policies/single-market.html">four freedoms</a> (movement of goods, capital, services, and people) have become unquestioned articles of faith. </p>
<h2>It’s all academic</h2>
<p>Criticism of the EU’s dysfunctionality is usually met with the acknowledgement that reform is indeed needed. But the likelihood of root and branch reform is somewhat remote. The EU is an organisation so irredeemably Kafkaesque that, once a month, at vast expense, the <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/meps-on-the-move-madness-of-strasbourg-shift-10293596">parliamentary machine moves</a> from Brussels to Strasbourg for four days. And then goes back again.</p>
<p>But anti-Brexit academics no longer appear able to differentiate between their own personal investment in the EU and the progressive social values they also claim to uphold. </p>
<p>It is worth remembering that it is the middle class <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/28/dont-blame-corbyn-sins-blair-brown-new-labour">abandonment of the working class</a> that laid the groundwork for the Brexit result. <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/stoke-by-election-labour-retains-seat-ukip-leader-paul-nuttall-suffers-brexit-blow-1608294">Low voter turnout</a> for the recent Stoke byelection (caused by <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38608825">Tristram Hunt MP leaving</a> a working class constituency to head the Victoria and Albert Museum) contrasts sharply with the queues snaking around council estates on the day of the EU referendum in June 2016.</p>
<p>On that remarkable day, ordinary members of the electorate showed the highly educated what a principled stand looks like. Maybe even German bankers were given momentary pause for thought – before they resumed their <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/yanis-varoufakis-on-imf-debt-talk-leak-2016-4?r=DE&IR=T">fiscal water boarding</a> of the Greek people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73548/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul A Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Undemocratic? Bureaucratic? The EU and universities have plenty in common.Paul A Taylor, Senior Lecturer, Communications Theory, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/633582016-08-08T09:57:41Z2016-08-08T09:57:41ZOnly by keeping close ties with Europe can UK research remain globally competitive<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133222/original/image-20160805-496-1dhtokn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Clinging on for now. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">romantitov/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The best ideas do not respect national boundaries. Great research and scholarship has always relied on cross-border interactions. Rivalries, such as that between <a href="https://www.math.rutgers.edu/courses/436/Honors02/newton.html">Newton and Leibnitz</a> over the invention of calculus, and collaborations, such as those <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-european-union-can-learn-from-cern-about-international-co-operation-56456">at the CERN</a> project in Switzerland involve people from different nations working on common problems. Since at least the philosopher <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/duns-scotus/">John Duns Scotus</a> in the 13th century, the mobility of scholars has been a major channel of progress. </p>
<p>The UK’s vote to leave the EU on June 23 poses a challenge to this status quo. The UK will now have to work hard at exploring new ways of belonging in Europe, because in recent decades, EU mobility, collaboration and funding has lain at the heart of the country’s global research excellence.</p>
<h2>Looking elsewhere</h2>
<p>The referendum result leaves researchers with acute uncertainty about the commitment of the UK to maintain the open environment in which the best research can take place and into which the best researchers are recruited. Unlike many countries, the UK’s recruitment procedures are very open and focused on attracting talent, rather than simply favouring success in a national competition. Many fine people have been able to build whole careers here. </p>
<p>So the uncertainty over the status of non-UK nationals from the EU and European Economic Area is especially disquieting. They <a href="https://royalsociety.org/%7E/media/policy/projects/eu-uk-funding/phase-2/EU-role-in-international-research-collaboration-and-researcher-mobility.pdf">make up 16% of academic staff</a> in UK universities and in certain departments it is far more: more than 50% of professors in <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/economics/people/facultyA-Z.aspx">LSE’s economics department</a> for example.</p>
<p>We know of and have heard of colleagues who are being offered jobs elsewhere in Europe, and we know of prospective job candidates who have turned down positions in the UK since the referendum. At this early stage it is difficult to say whether the humanities and social sciences are more affected than other disciplines in this way but the mood music in the community is very uncertain. </p>
<p>The UK is not <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-summer-when-working-in-a-british-university-lost-its-global-appeal-63431">as attractive a place </a>for researchers as it was before the referendum. This may be just an initial shock and it may all die down, but on the other hand a reputation once lost is very hard to regain. We have many competitors overseas and the best people move to the most flourishing environments to work. </p>
<p>The language used in the referendum against migrants was felt as a personal attack by many staff at all levels within the academic community, as well as by students. Facing such emotions, it is understandable that many may re-evaluate what they thought they knew about working in UK research.</p>
<h2>Cementing collaboration</h2>
<p>When it comes to collaboration, UK research is internationally competitive in part because it seeks out the best international partners: <a href="http://www.international.ac.uk/media/3749507/Digital_Research_Report_Collaboration.pdf">60% of our international collaborations</a> are with our EU partners, and in the EU’s Framework Programme 7, for 23 of the 27 member states, collaborations with UK-based researchers <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/evaluations/pdf/archive/fp7_monitoring_reports/7th_fp7_monitoring_report.pdf">ranked the highest</a> or second most frequent. </p>
<p>Since the referendum, our European partners are noticeably asking us to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/jul/11/referendum-academic-research-universities-eu-students-brexit">stand aside as principal investigators</a> or <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-uk-leaves-the-eu-36719923">step out</a> of consortia bids entirely. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/statement-on-higher-education-and-research-following-the-eu-referendum">government has said</a> that nothing has changed legally. This is true. But partners in the EU are evaluating their options. They may decide, from a “safety first” perspective, that collaborations with the UK come with too big a risk</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133079/original/image-20160804-493-vmjos8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133079/original/image-20160804-493-vmjos8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133079/original/image-20160804-493-vmjos8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133079/original/image-20160804-493-vmjos8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133079/original/image-20160804-493-vmjos8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133079/original/image-20160804-493-vmjos8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133079/original/image-20160804-493-vmjos8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Collaborations under threat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lightspring/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>One simple solution would be for the UK government to guarantee or underwrite every application to the EU’s <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/">flagship Horizon 2020</a> research programme from now until a new relationship with the EU is stabilised. This would mean promising to pay for research if European funding is withdrawn at a later stage. Legally, if nothing has changed, then the government ought to be happy to put its best foot forward in the short term, and thereafter, negotiate accordingly in order to support its world-leading research base. Here is a challenge that the government needs to meet squarely head on if it values national research excellence and its contribution to economic competitiveness and creativity.</p>
<h2>Funding at risk</h2>
<p>Until now, the UK has been very successful in gaining EU research funding. Such success should not be punished. In the humanities and social sciences, UK-based researchers have <a href="https://erc.europa.eu/projects-and-results/statistics">won a third</a> of all advanced grants and starting grants ever awarded by the European Research Council (ERC). This is an incredible achievement – a sign of established research excellence. </p>
<p>There is no UK equivalent of the ERC in terms of scope and size so what will happen if we leave the EU and cannot access funding streams such as Horizon 2020? The success and international standing of the humanities and social sciences needs to be protected. </p>
<p>From our rough calculations using data on <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/422477/bis-10-1356-allocation-of-science-and-research-funding-2011-2015.pdf">past</a> and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/505308/bis-16-160-allocation-science-research-funding-2016-17-2019-20.pdf">future</a> research allocations in the UK, and data sent to us by the ERC, the value of the awards won by UK-based researchers each year from 2007-15 from the ERC is equivalent to 23% of the annual budgets of Economic and Social Research Council and Arts and Humanities Research Council combined. It was around 8.5% for the life sciences and physical sciences and engineering. </p>
<p>As the government negotiates its new relationship with the EU, it should realise that until now the EU has provided resources that do not exist in the UK. These instruments may well need to be created anew in the UK. If that is the case, the government will need to take some clear and prominent steps to ensure the UK remains bound to and relevant to the global scholarly endeavour if it wants the country to remain attractive to researchers from around the world.</p>
<p>The challenge Britain now faces is one that raises risks for its purpose, identity and capability to compete internationally and remain relevant at home. Business as usual it cannot be. Of course, new international collaborations will be sought and nurtured by UK researchers and institutions. UK research will not remain paralysed after Brexit, but it does not make sense to walk away from the European interactions that have served us so well so far. </p>
<p><strong>This article was updated on August 8 to correct a currency discrepancy in the ERC funding percentages, which have now been amended.</strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ash Amin has received funding in the past from the Economic and Social Research Council and he has been a member of the European Research Council Advanced Grant Panel. He is the Foreign Secretary & Vice President of the British Academy.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Bell receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. He is Chair of the British Academy’s Europe Working Group and the All European Academies Social Sciences and Humanities Working Group.</span></em></p>Brexit has put scholarly endeavour in Britain under a huge new strain.Ash Amin, 1931 Chair in Geography and Fellow of Christ's College, University of CambridgeJohn Bell, Professor of Law, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/634312016-08-08T08:23:36Z2016-08-08T08:23:36ZThe summer when working in a British university lost its global appeal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133088/original/image-20160804-496-giyc01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Brian A Jackson/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The last few months have clearly been trying on the nerves and confidence of many academics working in Britain. The vote for Brexit has reverberated through the ivory towers and off the red-brick walls of British universities. In the middle of this unease then came a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-excellence-framework-review">set of new recommendations</a> by Lord Nicholas Stern proposing changes to the way the quality of research is assessed in the UK. </p>
<p>Writing as a migrant working within UK academia, I believe the events of this summer will make the UK increasingly financially uncompetitive in the global marketplace – and an ever more unattractive destination for academics in many fields. </p>
<p>In the wake of the UK’s vote for Brexit, there has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/brexit-the-aftermath-for-universities-and-students-61698">much debate</a> about the impact on universities. There are fears it will mean less EU research funding, fewer EU students at all levels, less cooperation between UK and EU institutions and increased costs in recruiting and retaining both staff and students. </p>
<p>Within my own university there are already examples of individuals being asked to step aside from EU research grant proposal teams. This is due to fear of bias from reviewers rather than any retribution from the EU itself, which is on record as saying it will consider all proposals <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/unitedkingdom/news/manchester-eu-commissioner-moedas-reassures-uk-researchers-and-launches-%E2%82%AC85bn-eu-work-programme_en">as in the past</a>. Scholars from the EU who had been offered jobs in the UK have had them turned down since the vote because of uncertainty about immigration issues. In one case I know of, the academic from another country in the EU had accepted a position before the vote, only to change their mind after the vote.</p>
<h2>Uncompetitive salaries</h2>
<p>The indirect impact of the Brexit vote on exchange rates – and so the global competitiveness of salaries – is probably one of the least discussed areas. It has been documented that UK academic salaries in most disciplines are significantly <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/academic-salaries-no-longer-attract-top-talent-survey-finds/419399.article">below those paid in North America</a> and <a href="https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/6949/UK-academics-paid-less-than-lecturers-in-other-English-speaking-countries">Australia</a>. </p>
<p>In my field, business and management, the UK’s standard salary scales range from about 50% (of US salaries) at the lower end of scale for lecturers in management, strategy or human resources – to about 75% (of US salaries) at the upper end of the scale for professors in finance and accounting. With the fall in the exchange rate of about 14% against the Australian and US dollars, these discounts are even larger. One of my US colleagues used to call the UK system the “Walmart of academia”; after Brexit it is more like Poundland. </p>
<p>What has held the system in the UK in place (at least at business schools) is that while UK institutions were uncompetitive against the major institutions in countries such as the US, they were competitive with many institutions in Europe, particularly schools in the east and south of the <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/eu-nationals-fill-four-10-new-university-jobs-england">continent</a>. In my own institution, Leeds University Business School, about half the faculty are foreign, with Greeks the dominant EU source for scholars in the business school. In my specific department, 90% of the staff were born outside the UK, with staff from the US, Greece, Ireland, China, India, Poland, Finland, Italy and Romania. </p>
<p>My point is that a system already barely financially competitive against the best in the world has still been able to play in the global game as long as it has because of its openness to foreign labour. While we still desire to be open to all, the cost of that openness may soon be prohibitively high.</p>
<h2>Stay where you are</h2>
<p>Into this new uncertainty has come the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-excellence-framework-review">Stern review</a> of the Research Excellence Framework (REF), the process through which the quality of research is assessed. In particular, one proposal for the next REF – expected in 2020 or 2021 – could have an effect on the competitiveness of the UK marketplace for attracting academics: the idea that only research done at an academic’s current institution can be used in that university’s submission to the REF. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133090/original/image-20160804-496-1a2edk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133090/original/image-20160804-496-1a2edk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133090/original/image-20160804-496-1a2edk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133090/original/image-20160804-496-1a2edk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133090/original/image-20160804-496-1a2edk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133090/original/image-20160804-496-1a2edk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133090/original/image-20160804-496-1a2edk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Make yourself comfortable.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jodcol/17010939391/sizes/l">jdco/flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The goal is to stop universities recruiting new staff just before they submit to the REF – something Stern says has costs for “recruitment and retention” in UK universities. But what he proposes is to replace rent-seeking by individuals with rent-seeking by institutions, effectively shackling academics to their current employer and encouraging those who have effective scholarly records to capitalise on those records overseas rather than in the UK.</p>
<p>I will admit, in the spirit of open disclosure, that I was a REFugee, recruited into what the University of Leeds called a university leadership chair. I arrived right before the REF census date. According to the logic of Stern, I was engaging in blatant rent-seeking – but nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, I took a slight pay cut to move to the UK (which is now a much larger pay cut given Brexit) and the only reason I moved was that Leeds was willing to accommodate my “rent-seeking” by paying me something closer to my global market worth rather than the Walmart-UK discounted salary dictated by the salary scales. </p>
<p>Stern’s logic on the portability of research outputs is flawed on a number of dimensions, not least because the time taken to publish research varies enormously between fields. In my field, the time between submission of a manuscript and its ultimate publication ranges from three to five years, with a typical paper having to go through three rounds of reviews. So an academic may find themselves stuck at their institution for a period of indenture that can amount to five years or more. No school will hire them away since they lack “REF value” – and given Stern’s proposal that all staff will be assessed in the process, newcomers may impose a real burden on staff already at the institution, no matter how solid their record up to that point.</p>
<p>Taken together, Brexit and the impact of Stern’s recommendations, mean scholars may well rethink whether the UK is the environment where they can most effectively build and enhance their intellectual and professional capital while ensuring that they are paid consistent with the value of human capital. While this may take time to materialise, the UK may find itself facing a serious shortage of talented academics as more and more look elsewhere to start a career.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63431/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Devinney receives funding from The Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Brexit, and proposed changes to the way research is assessed, are making Britain uncompetitive in the global race for academic talent.Timothy Devinney, University Leadership Chair & Professor, Pro Dean of Research & Innovation, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/616982016-06-28T10:48:17Z2016-06-28T10:48:17ZBrexit: the aftermath for universities and students<p>The UK’s vote to leave the European Union has been met with shock and apprehension by universities, academics and students across the country. University leaders became increasingly worried about the possibility of a Brexit as the poll neared, with three vice-chancellors giving their reasons to remain <a href="http://theconversation.com/insularity-is-not-the-way-forward-three-university-vice-chancellors-on-brexit-60660">here on The Conversation</a>. But now, with the result in and Britain destined to leave, what kind of future beckons for Britain’s universities?</p>
<h2>Research funding</h2>
<p>As a full member of the union, for the moment Britain still enjoys membership of the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/index_en.htm">European Research Area</a>, the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/">Horizon 2020</a> research funding programme and a range of other research partnerships and initiatives. With the vote for Brexit, these relationships will – at some point in the future – cease. Some may be reconstituted, but it is hard to believe this will happen on the same preferential terms <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/25/europe-prepares-fast-and-painful-deal-for-britain/">given widespread reluctance</a> among EU leaders (fearful of further secessions) to be seen to be giving Britain a good deal.</p>
<p>It is true that Horizon 2020 is open to non-EU members – for example it <a href="http://www.iserd.org.il/?CategoryID=179">includes Israel</a>, which has a <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/iscp/index.cfm?lg=en&pg=israel">long history</a> of collaboration with EU research. But access to these programmes is often highly political and in my opinion, it is difficult to envisage the UK – a much bigger higher education system than Israel’s, for example – being able to access the programme on the same terms currently offered to non-EU members. This is particularly the case, given the Leave lobby’s opposition to free movement to the UK, an issue which has restricted Switzerland’s associate membership of Horizon but which is not relevant to other members such as Israel or Armenia.</p>
<p>Current associate members of Horizon such as Serbia, Montenegro and Albania are working towards EU membership, while Norway is a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), which allows free movement of people. While some Vote Leave leaders <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/06/tory-brexiter-daniel-hannan-leave-campaign-never-promised-radical-decline">have been quick to say that free movement wouldn’t be restricted post-Brexit</a>, it is highly questionable whether Britain will be allowed access to the EEA, or whether the British public could be convinced of this option – given that this would be unlikely to reduce immigration.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128311/original/image-20160627-28388-1hd3fvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128311/original/image-20160627-28388-1hd3fvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128311/original/image-20160627-28388-1hd3fvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128311/original/image-20160627-28388-1hd3fvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128311/original/image-20160627-28388-1hd3fvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128311/original/image-20160627-28388-1hd3fvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128311/original/image-20160627-28388-1hd3fvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Testing times for research.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Suwit Ngaokaew/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>None of the Horizon associate members remotely compare in scale to the UK’s research power. The former EU Commission president Juan Manuel Barroso <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/brexit-the-perks-and-pitfalls-for-higher-education">remarked in 2015</a> that the UK is receiving more than what its economic or demographic dimension would entitle it to receive in terms of EU research funding. In 2014-15, <a href="http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Documents/2016/economic-impact-of-eu-research-funding-in-uk-universities.pdf">according to Universities UK</a>, universities attracted more than £836m in research grants and contracts from the EU. It would appear unlikely that the UK could continue to punch above its weight in these terms once it is outside the union.</p>
<p>There is no guarantee, as <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/eu-referendum-result-uk-universities-brexit-remain-leave-student-higher-education-sector-a7101846.html">some have argued</a>, that the government will make up any future shortfall in research funding. Higher education does not exist in a vacuum and the long-term economic prospects of the UK are now in serious question. </p>
<h2>Student experience and teaching</h2>
<p>The future of the ERASMUS student exchange scheme, <a href="http://theconversation.com/insularity-is-not-the-way-forward-three-university-vice-chancellors-on-brexit-60660">from which 200,000 UK students have benefited</a>, is uncertain as far as British students are concerned. It is also perhaps inevitable that the UK – having rejected the European Union in a bitter campaign marked by significant anti-immigrant rhetoric – should become a less appealing destination for EU students, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/06/22/whats-stake-higher-ed-brexit-vote">who currently make up 5% of students at UK universities</a>. </p>
<p>More than this, the funding settlement whereby EU undergraduates pay fees at the home rate of £9,000 a year (and are able to access the same preferential loans as UK students, albeit with a new residency requirement for maintenance loans from this August) will end at some point. This may possibly be as early as 2017-2018, although the <a href="http://www.slc.co.uk/media/latest-news/eu-nationals-and-student-finance-in-england.aspx">Student Loans Company moved</a> quickly to note that the financial settlement will remain unchanged for existing students and current applicants. </p>
<p>This follows moves by individual institutions, such as UCL, to <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/eu-referendum-result-brexit-leave-remain-higher-education-sector-students-a7100106.html">guarantee</a> current EU students’ fee rates. There is no certainty that a parallel settlement comparable to the original one will be put in place.</p>
<p>Taken together, this will pose challenges to universities with high EU student intakes, as well as <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/unlimited-student-recruitment-transforms-english-universities">those that had been hoping to</a> increase EU student intake now that controls on student numbers have been lifted. </p>
<p>Students’ teaching may also be affected. It is highly likely that a proportion of EU academics <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/brain-drain-brexit-universities-science-academics-referendum-eu-a7100266.html">will choose to leave</a> UK higher education and return to their countries of origin, or move to other EU states. Of academics working in British universities, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/06/22/whats-stake-higher-ed-brexit-vote">15% originate</a> from other EU member states. </p>
<p>A number have issued <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/series/academics-anonymous">prominent statements</a> that they are now considering leaving the UK given pervasive anti-immigrant rhetoric. European universities will also make job offers <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeSav47032563/status/746263548775534592">to “star”</a> British names potentially uncomfortable with the outcome of the referendum. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"746263548775534592"}"></div></p>
<h2>Higher education reform</h2>
<p>There may be some cause for optimism, however, for those opposed to the government’s ongoing <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-competitive-landscape-for-higher-education-confirmed-in-white-paper-59494">higher education reforms</a>. It is likely that they will, at least temporarily, be derailed. Though the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/higher-education-and-research-bill">Higher Education Bill</a> is already before the House of Commons, the executive was woefully unprepared for a leave vote in the referendum. </p>
<p>Civil servants in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and beyond will have bigger fish to fry over the next two years than developing the new <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/teaching-excellence-framework">Teaching Excellence Framework</a> (TEF), implementing the new governance arrangements or completing the transition to a marketised system. The University of Warwick’s vice-chancellor Stuart Croft has <a href="http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/vco/blog/">called for the higher education reforms to be postponed</a>. Governmental overload, or its very collapse, may ensure that’s exactly what happens. </p>
<p>Britain is in the middle of an unprecedented constitutional crisis. Universities matter to government and are a real factor, in government-speak, of achieving “success in a knowledge economy”. But they are not more important than trade or inward investment, securing export markets, or preventing the collapse of the territorial integrity of the union. In short, higher education will have to wait in (a very long) line.</p>
<p>The task before Britain’s university system is to secure its position in the global higher education sector even as the status and economic firepower of the host nation state diminishes, or – in the event of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/scottish-independence-back-in-play-after-brexit-shock-with-a-note-of-caution-61457">independent Scotland </a>– simply falls apart.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61698/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike Finn is a member of the Labour Party, the Co-Operative Party and Universities and Colleges Union.</span></em></p>What leaving the EU means for research, student experience and higher education reforms.Mike Finn, Principal Teaching Fellow, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/606602016-06-13T13:03:08Z2016-06-13T13:03:08Z‘Insularity is not the way forward’: three university vice-chancellors on Brexit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126264/original/image-20160613-29205-38ttu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">UCL in central London: worried about the impact of a Brexit. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/harrywood/5042876715/sizes/l">Harry Wood/flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities and their leaders are contemplating the spectre of a British exit from the European Union with considerable alarm. Over the last few decades, the institutional architecture of Britain’s universities has become ever more European. The threat of Brexit jeopardises a range of collaborations and research projects including the European Union’s <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/">Horizon 2020 programme</a> and the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/node_en">ERASMUS student exchange scheme</a>. Universities, unsurprisingly, are worried.</p>
<p>In an effort to understand the main issues worrying universities as the June 23 vote approaches, I spoke to the leaders of three universities of different sizes from across the country: Michael Arthur, president and provost at University College London; Gerry McCormac, principal at the University of Stirling, and Chris Husbands, vice-chancellor at Sheffield Hallam University. They focused on three core issues: student mobility, the UK’s attractiveness, and research funding. </p>
<h2>Student mobility</h2>
<p><strong>Gerry McCormac, Stirling</strong>: “I have no doubt that a Brexit would have a negative impact on student mobility, cultural diversity and understanding – it would greatly reduce student and staff exchange.” </p>
<p><strong>Chris Husbands, Sheffield Hallam</strong>: “The likelihood is that Brexit would make life more difficult.” Speaking in a personal capacity because his institution has not taken a position on the EU referendum, Husbands said Brexit would materially impact on students and the opportunities British universities can offer them. </p>
<p>“The ERASMUS programme is a good example of a programme which has made the logistics of arranging student mobility easier … Given the ways in which Brexit has adopted a strong rhetoric around closing, or raising border restrictions, I don’t think the best interests of UK students would be served by withdrawal,” said Husbands, the former director of UCL’s Institute of Education. </p>
<p><strong>Michael Arthur, UCL</strong>: “More than 200,000 young Britons have studied and worked in Europe through the Erasmus programme. Post-Brexit there would likely be no Erasmus mobility programme to and from the UK and the cultural loss to our universities would be significant.”</p>
<h2>Attractiveness of UK universities</h2>
<p>Recruitment of EU undergraduates is a serious business for Britain’s leading universities. <strong>Michael Arthur</strong> says that, unlike non-EU international students, EU students are eligible to get a loan to cover their £9,000 tuition fees – which would be unlikely to continue after a Brexit. Arthur also claims that leaving the EU would make Britain far less competitive in attracting such students. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There’s a huge difference between staying in the Netherlands and paying nothing, to coming to the UK and paying full international fees. It’s my view that we will lose a significant proportion of the undergraduates, and that could be quite negative.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>EU students are equally, if not more, important north of the border. <strong>Gerry McCormac</strong> highlighted the fact that of Scotland’s “over 50,000 international students”, 21,000 hail from the EU – “the highest proportion in the UK”. Their disappearance would amount to “a major economic impact” on Scotland. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The off-campus expenditure of all EU students is estimated to be worth over £400m per annum, creating and supporting close to <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/brexit-would-put-international-students-survey-shows">4,000 jobs</a>. In a small city like Stirling, this income makes a valuable contribution to the buoyant local economy.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The contribution EU students make to the cultural life of Britain’s universities is also significant, and Brexit would would throw this into question. <strong>McCormac</strong> added: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The richness of experience and mutual understanding of cultural differences provided by young people from across Europe, who live and learn together is immeasurable. Given Europe’s history of war and conflict, it’s uplifting to see young people exploring different cultures and learning together.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The fear of exit is real, then, not just for vice-chancellors, but for students themselves, as <strong>McCormac</strong> elaborated. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>According to a <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/brexit-would-put-international-students-survey-shows">recent report</a>, nearly half of international students, and more than 80% of EU students, would not view the UK as an attractive place to study in the event of a Brexit. This shows a worrying lack of confidence in UK universities outside of the EU with serious implications for student recruitment and quality of experience.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Impact on research</h2>
<p>Research collaboration is the keynote of the vice-chancellors’ concerns. The complexity of negotiating numerous bilateral agreements with partner institutions in a post-EU world is a point of real contention for them.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126266/original/image-20160613-29241-1truqa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126266/original/image-20160613-29241-1truqa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126266/original/image-20160613-29241-1truqa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126266/original/image-20160613-29241-1truqa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126266/original/image-20160613-29241-1truqa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126266/original/image-20160613-29241-1truqa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126266/original/image-20160613-29241-1truqa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Bringing brains together.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">wavebreakmedia/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p><strong>Chris Husbands</strong>: “The EU, imperfect though it is, has been a spur to collaboration.” For him, it is hard to believe “that European scientists, still operating in a common space, would look to Britain to collaborate.” </p>
<p>He added: “It is difficult to believe that the UK science budget would be increased post-Brexit to compensate for lost EU funding.”</p>
<p><strong>Michael Arthur</strong> argued that the EU “plays a vital role in bringing the best scientists and researchers together”. </p>
<p>“Research carried out in collaboration with international partners has <a href="https://www.digital-science.com/resources/digital-research-reports/digital-research-report-the-implications-of-international-research-collaboration-for-uk-universities/">50% more impact</a> than that carried out by a single country … There would be no development (for the UK at least) of the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/index_en.htm">European Research Area</a>, making the cross-border movement of postdoctoral researchers and academic staff much more difficult.”</p>
<p>Though collaboration is king, cash also matters. <strong>Arthur</strong> pointed out that UCL currently receives the most amount of funding in the EU from the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/">Horizon 2020</a> programme and ranks in the top three of those receiving the most funding from the European Research Council, and this funding supports roughly one in eight of UCL’s research staff. </p>
<p><strong>Gerry McCormac</strong> said that the UK is a net beneficiary of research funding from the EU, which is worth over £1 billion a year to the UK. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Cutting ourselves off from the research income and, inevitably, from much of the cutting edge research that it funds, would set research back in this country and risk the loss of our dominance in the world. Insularity is not the way forward, increased collaboration, sharing resources and ensuring mobility of expertise for the common good is the path we’re on and the one we need to continue to follow.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Consensus for a reason</h2>
<p>Among British vice-chancellors, there is something close to a <a href="http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/Pages/universities-for-europe.aspx">consensus</a>: membership of the European Union boosts both research and the student experience, and enables universities to fulfil their mission as centres for cultural exchange. </p>
<p><strong>Michael Arthur</strong>: “When there is near unanimity among Britain’s vice-chancellors that Brexit would be bad for the future of our sector, it is worth considering why.” </p>
<p>Britain’s universities are a success story of globalisation. Brexit represents an attempt to turn back the clock on that process. It may not dominate the referendum debates as immigration and the economy do, but for Britain’s vice-chancellors one thing is certain: the fate of Britain’s universities hangs in the balance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60660/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike Finn is a member of the Labour Party, the Co-Operative Party and the University and College Union.</span></em></p>University leaders voice concerns over a possible Brexit and how it would impact student mobility, research funding and the attractiveness of UK universities.Mike Finn, Principal Teaching Fellow, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/599502016-06-02T13:25:23Z2016-06-02T13:25:23ZEU students do very well out of studying in the UK – Brexit might scupper that<p>What Brexit would mean for EU students and the graduate labour force is a complicated question. The process of negotiating a British exit from the EU would create a period of significant uncertainty and could well make the UK <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-36286057">a less desirable place</a> to study during the period of transition. </p>
<p>And a vote to leave the EU could also have an impact on the level of skilled labour in the UK work force. </p>
<p>Around 23% of university graduates living in the UK in 2014 were born abroad and a third of these were born in the European Union, <a href="https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/?sn=7664&type=Data%20catalogue">according to our estimates</a> using the 2014 Labour Force Survey. Many of these graduates will have come to the UK after finishing their degrees. But a sizeable proportion are likely to have arrived as students: 16% of the working age immigrant population in the UK originally arrived for study, and more than half of these have at <a href="http://repec.ioe.ac.uk/REPEc/pdf/qsswp1414.pdf">least one UK degree</a>.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk//files/news/2016/brexit/brightest-best-graduates-eu.pdf">new research</a> analysed what 2m graduates did six months after leaving university by looking at responses to the Higher Education Statistics Authority’s <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/stats-dlhe">Destination of Leavers from Higher Education</a> survey between 2003-4 and 2011-12. We found that EU-domiciled students (whose home country is in an EU-member state) comprise 8% of the students in postgraduate taught programs, 13% in postgraduate research, and 5% of all undergraduates.</p>
<p>Among those pursuing postgraduate research degrees (mostly PhDs), two thirds of EU students were concentrated in highly desired science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) fields. In 2011-12 alone, 5,446 EU undergraduates and 6,941 EU postgraduates in the UK graduated with a STEM degree.</p>
<h2>EU graduates in the workforce</h2>
<p>Besides constituting a sizeable proportion of graduates, EU domiciled students go on to contribute to the UK economy: more than half remain in the country six months after graduation. </p>
<p>And those who stay perform very well, particularly at the undergraduate level. We found that EU domiciled undergraduates who remain in the UK <a href="https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk//files/news/2016/brexit/brightest-best-graduates-eu.pdf">are six percentage points</a> more likely to have a first class degree than British students within STEM fields, and nine percentage points more likely to have a first within non-STEM fields.</p>
<p>Comparing EU and UK graduates within the same institutions, with the same subject of study and at the same level of performance, we found that EU-domiciled undergraduates are between 26 and 30 percentage points more likely to continue to study and are less likely to be unemployed. Those who stay in the UK are also more likely to be in a job that matches their training.</p>
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<p>EU-domiciled postgraduates also perform well, with success in the job market similar to or better than British postgraduates, even after adjusting for university characteristics and subject of study.</p>
<p>EU-domiciled postgraduates are more likely than British postgraduates to continue in full-time education. Postgraduates in research programs who remain in the UK are also between nine and 12 percentage points more likely to be in jobs where their training is required or is expected for their job, than to be in a job where their training is not required – something that is often taken as a marker of over-qualification.</p>
<p>EU students at UK universities are clearly the best and brightest in their class. On the whole, their achievements outstrip their British classmates and they represent a significantly well-qualified group of graduate workers entering the UK workforce. These highly skilled, top-class graduates are likely to have a very positive impact on UK industry.</p>
<p>Should UK voters decide to leave the EU, the uncertainty of the situation – particularly in any short-term transition period – could discourage EU students from coming to the UK for study, from staying on to pursue further degrees or to work in the country following their graduation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59950/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Renee Luthra receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. She is associated with the University and College Union. The views in this article do not reflect those of the research councils. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Greta Morando receives funding from Economic and Social Research Council. The views in this article do not reflect those of the research councils. </span></em></p>The British labour force has a lot to lose if EU students are turned off coming to the UK.Renee Luthra, Research Fellow, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of EssexGreta Morando, PhD candidate, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.