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.
