BREXIT: What will happen with UK higher education after Brexit?

What will happen with UK higher education after Brexit?

In this essay it is going to be discussed the future of the university education after Brexit. First, it is going to be done a brief introduction of the relation between Britain and the rest of Europe in higher education. Secondly, the essay will analyse how the students of both the EU and UK will be affected, especially in the Erasmus Programme, taking into account the possible consequences of leaving the programme. Thirdly, it will be discussed how Brexit will affect education in the particular case of Scotland and suggest the potential strategies to develop the education system. Finally, it is going to be used Romero’s personal experience to show the first effects of Brexit on individual students.

The UK’s vote to leave the EU has caused widespread consternation and has weakened the relations between Europe and the UK. Among other features, the higher education system is one of the main important aspects that will be affected by this situation. In the past decades, EU universities and British universities have had many exchange and cooperation programmes, one of the most popular is the Erasmus Programme. This programme has not only helped the universities to deepen academic research and improve new teaching methods, but it has also made students have more opportunities to receive better education resources. However, Brexit has changed this favourable cooperation and it is estimated to have even worse impacts in the long term.

To begin with, we are going to write about the EU and UK students’ problems in studying abroad in Europe. In demographic terms, UK universities will be affected because they have a EU undergraduate’s dependence, and leaving the EU, they will have reduced a number of excellent students from European countries. Moreover, another reason why EU students can decide not to come to UK universities is the financial one. Even though it is already known that the EU will give less financial support to EU students who go to the UK (because it will be no longer in the EU), the current concern of students is if they will be required to pay the full international student’s fee. If this occurs, the number of these students will dramatically decrease in UK universities. Furthermore, UK universities will also suffer potential consequences for the decline in revenues (Mayhew, 2017). At the same time, UK students will also have the same main issues. Nevertheless, in the case of British students it will not be so much a financial problem but a problem of having fewer opportunities when they want to pursue advanced studies.

In addition to the reduction of the number of excellent students, universities’ academic research may also be affected. In previous years, numerous cooperation programmes were established in an attempt to encourage academic research and faculty development. Such collaborations have largely improved research-oriented universities capabilities. Once lost the support from EU, UK universities may not satisfy the needs of the nation and society in the long term. Furthermore, it will be difficult for universities to hire and retain staff from EU countries. Overall, the impact on the ability of UK universities to develop will be huge. After Brexit, UK needs to deal with how to ensure adequate funding for research (Mayhew, 2017).

          Facing such negative impacts, the Scottish government has shown its objection to Brexit in terms of education. The government released the information that its universities will continue to welcome students from Europe despite the threat from Brexit. Scotland is proud of its thriving higher education and recognises the social economic and cultural benefits. International students have made a huge contribution to Scotland. The government believes in its excellence in education and the proud of its deep sense of internationalism. Although worrying signs show that Brexit is making Scotland less attractive for EU students, the reduction in the number of applicants to Scottish universities has had less impact than in England. This has also shown the damage being done by the decision to leave the EU (Anon, 2017). Overall, the Scottish government’s attitudes and response towards Brexit’s influence on the education system suggest that improvements are needed to make up for the loss of excellent students, resources and experts from the EU.

To improve the education system, UK universities should try to use strategies to develop its higher education system for the longer term. Firstly, UK universities’ administration should take the positive advantage of its program duration to attract non-European students. The negative impact of Britain's harsh study abroad policy is less than the positive attraction of having a shorter time to complete a degree. The undergraduate program is usually 3 years for international students and 1 to 2 years for post-graduate. Despite the fact that the visa threshold is strict, the shorter academic structure is still an important factor in attracting more international students’ interests. Furthermore, Brexit will also bring opportunities and encouragements to the development of the British education system under great challenges. UK universities may seek broader international cooperation without losing the opportunity to develop their overseas education industry. Although Brexit will not have much impact on the overall development of higher education in Britain, it is undeniable that Brexit has still brought about major changes in the field of scientific research in the United Kingdom. Britain should take the path of bilateral and international cooperation and innovation in the future.

From personal experience, even though if Brexit has still not happened, it has already affected me. As a current Erasmus student in the University of Edinburgh, I can say that I have had fewer opportunities to choose a university in England than other partners in previous years, with this I mean that for instance, in places such as London there was only one place to go for the Erasmus and it was for one single semester. This was not the case of Scotland, where I have had the same opportunities to choose a university than my other partners had in recent years. In the financial point of view, my scholarship has been affected, because the United Kingdom has passed from a first category destination for Erasmus students to a second one, so I received less money from the EU to go to the UK. Moreover, accommodation prices will also be more expensive in following years according to what I have been told by the university here in Scotland. Nevertheless, a good aspect about Brexit that will be good for students is that the pound has been devalued in recent years, so the exchange range between the euro and the pound will benefit us. My suggestion will be not to leave the EU, because there will be serious consequences in the Erasmus Programme, but as it seems impossible to reverse this situation, I would probably try not to change the Erasmus and reinforce it offering more opportunities to study in the UK. This reinforcement should be done to improve the European educational system and try to avoid mixing politics with education.

In conclusion, our study aimed to investigate the effects of Brexit on the UK higher education system. We have explored the negative effects of Brexit on both European students and UK universities. We then discussed the potential advantages and strategies that could be adopted to make up for the loss of the advantages of being inside the EU and development of the UK education system. In general, we can see that Brexit is having negative effects on both the EU and the UK particularly. In the future, it is estimated that UK universities will have a decline in their income of EU students, financial aid from Europe and academic research resources. And UK universities will also need to seek other alternatives, such as broader international cooperation, to improve their academic research quality in the long term.

References

Mayhew, Ken; UK higher education and Brexit, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 33, Issue suppl_1, 1 March 2017, Pages S155–S161, https://doi-org.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/10.1093/oxrep/grx012

Anon, 2017. SCOTLAND IS TOP OF ERASMUS CLASS. States News Service, States News Service, Feb 3, 2017.

In collaboration with Chushu Wu.

BREXIT. A sad day.

BREXIT. A SAD DAY.

Today, 24^th June 2016, the UK has decided to leave the European Union. Yesterday, with a 51.9% the Eurosceptics voted not to stay in Europe anymore and with this, the UK would probably become the first country to leave the EU. However, how will this affect us? What advantages and disadvantages are we going to have?

First of all, we have to talk about which countries in the UK are for and against leaving the EU. Scotland and Northern Ireland voted against leaving the EU, while Wales and England voted for it. As a result of this, Scotland and Northern Ireland want to have referendums to decide if they want to leave the UK or remain. In the case of Scotland, for example, they want a referendum to leave the UK and stay in the EU, especially because that was the reason  England used to convince Scottish people to stay in the UK, “If Scotland leaves the UK, they will also leave the EU”. And in the case of Northern Ireland they would want a referendum to belong to the Republic of Ireland, which is in the EU.

Secondly, we have to know the main reasons why they think that it’s better to leave the EU. Leaving the EU, they reckon that they would make stronger trade deals with other nations, they would have more freedom to control their national borders (having fewer problems with immigration) and they also think that they would restore Britain’s special legal system.

Thirdly, how will this affect a European country like Spain? On the one hand, this will have an economic impact: in our commercial trades with England which are really important for our economy, in tourism (English tourists are the ones who visited our country the most last year). And on the other hand, it will affect the Spanish people that are now working or studying in England. Moreover, this will also affect us at school, because until now, English was the official language in Europe, but now, we don’t know if it will continue being it.

Another important problem would be Gibraltar, a little region situated in the South of Spain that belongs to the United Kingdom and that voted with a 94% to stay in the EU. They voted for staying in the EU, because its main economic source is their commercial trades that they do with Europe and England, and now they could even decide to join Spain.

In my case, it will probably affect me directly, because in two years’ time I will have to decide where I’m going to do my Erasmus, and I’ll probably choose Ireland or Scotland rather than England. For me it’s a sad day, because I love England and I would have liked them in the EU, but I respect their decision. Nevertheless, I have travelled to all the UK (except Northern Ireland) and I know that British people are a bit more arrogant than for example Irish or Scottish (don’t misunderstand my words) for example having a different currency from EU or a different manner for driving…, but I would have never expected this. It’s true that there would also be some advantages, such as the fact that England would be cheaper. However, as I said before, today is a sad day.

A terrorist attack. Maintenan, on est tous Paris.

A TERRORIST ATTACK. MAINTENANT, ON EST TOUS PARIS.

Last Friday, 13^th November France suffered one of the worst episodes of the 21st century. I didn’t write about this before, because the event was too recent and I wanted to see what was going to happen next, the reaction of France, how much this has affected us, and obviously how this was going to affect Spain, because I remind you that Granada is one of the most menaced cities by these fanatical terrorists, because they still think that the south Spain is Al-Andalus, as it was called when they invaded the Iberian peninsula in 711 AD, and they still think that is part of their “empire”.

First of all, I’m going to talk a bit about the incident. It began in the northern suburb, Saint-Denis, on the night of 13th November 2015. The attackers killed 130 people, including 89 at the Bataclan theatre, where they took hostages. In total 368 people were injured. Afterwards, three suicide bombers struck near the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, followed by suicide bombings and mass shootings at cafés, restaurants and a music venue in Paris. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying it was in retaliation for the French airstrikes on ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq. The President of France, François Hollande, said the attacks were planned in Syria, organised in Belgium, and perpetrated with French complicity.

In response, a state of emergency was declared, and temporary border checks were introduced. On 15^th November, France launched the biggest air raid, striking ISIL targets in Al-Raqqah. On 18^th November, the suspected lead operative of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed in a police raid in Saint-Denis, along with at least two other people.

 
France had been on high alert since the January 2015 attacks in Paris that killed 17 people, including civilians and police officers. The November attacks have been the deadliest on France since World War II, and the deadliest in the European Union since the Madrid train bombings in 2004. 

But, why hasn’t Europe reacted now to this problem and not before? That’s because things only affect us when they are near us. There have been many attacks in other countries like Tunisia, Kuwait…, but it’s now when Europe is doing something against these terrorists. People think that this could be the beginning of the 3rd World War with a new type of fighting in which there won’t be a war between two factions, instead of that, we will have attacks like this one in Paris, where we could see that the terrorist hadn’t fear to die and kill themselves with bombs. 

And regarding the response of France, I reckon that it’s not the best way to solve this problem, because I think that they are killing too many civil people that maybe couldn’t have escaped from these places, even if now there isn’t another solution, because they are recruiting more and more children so that they can train them to do this type of things, which is inhuman. 

I only hope that this war will finish as soon as possible, so that these episodes won’t happen again in France, in Tunisia and in any part of the world. Even if experts say that it will take several years. Nevertheless, I only want our governments to stay together against these terrorists and not be hypocrites just putting a French flag in their Facebook profiles, because I didn’t see anybody with other flags when the terrorists attacked other countries, and please don’t say hypocrites to the people that observe a minute of silence, because nobody has observed a minute of silence in other terrorist attacks.

Greece’s Future, and the Euro’s

Greece’s Future, and the Euro’s

These days every TV network is talking the same topic, the future of Greece. Everyone is following in the news how things are developing. Greece is now in a very delicate moment. But, how are they going to pay all their debts? Moreover, will they be able to pay them at least? 

On the one hand, now in Greece there is a far-left wing party in the Greek Parliament, who promised to reduce the debts that Greece had and who also promised other benefits to poor people, like a reduction in the electricity bills. Furthermore, Alexis Tsipras, the Prime Minister convoked a Referendum to vote  if they accepted what they have to pay to Europe or to force Europe to hand over more money with less austerity attached (what he was for). 

On the other hand, European countries want all the money that they have lent to Greece back. They think that Greece hasn’t done enough reforms to give them more money. For instance, there are only five swimming pools that pay taxes to the government, their VAT is very low… This means that Greece will have to pay at the end, because when they asked for money Europe gave it to them.

Finally they have accepted the conditions imposed by the EU, and they are going to do the necessary reforms to have the third rescue. Despite the fact that they are going to have an increase in their VAT, the limit of the cash money…, now I reckon that they have more possibilities than before to emerge from the crisis.