Uncertainty has become the defining condition for UK universities since the 2016 Brexit vote. Six years on, the sector is still wrestling with consequences that were only dimly foreseen. Research collaborations with European partners face new bureaucratic hurdles.
Student exchange programmes, once routine, now require workarounds. Academic mobility — the free movement of scholars between British and European campuses — has been replaced by visa applications and paperwork.
Anne Corbett, a commentator on higher education policy, argues that disentangling the consequences of Brexit is essential before any effective reset can happen. That disentangling is proving slow. The complexity of the UK-EU relationship in higher education is not a single problem but a web of interconnected issues: research funding, regulatory alignment, data sharing, and the status of EU students in the UK system.
The numbers tell a blunt story. EU student applications to UK universities have dropped sharply since the referendum.
The loss of access to Horizon Europe, the EU’s flagship research programme, has left British researchers scrambling for alternative funding. The Erasmus+ scheme, which sent thousands of UK students to European universities each year, ended for Britain in 2020. A replacement programme, the Turing Scheme, exists but operates at smaller scale and without the reciprocal exchange structure that made Erasmus work.
These are not abstract policy questions. They affect real people. A postdoctoral researcher from Germany may now think twice before applying for a job at Oxford or Cambridge.
A British chemistry lab that relied on joint projects with a French institute must now navigate separate funding streams and data-sharing agreements. A student from Manchester who hoped to spend a year at the Sorbonne faces a more complicated path than her predecessor did in 2015.
The sector is calling for clarity. Several people in higher education have demanded a stable and predictable environment for research and teaching. That demand reflects a deeper frustration: Brexit introduced new challenges, but the government has not yet provided a coherent framework for addressing them.
The result is a landscape of ad hoc arrangements and temporary fixes. What comes next is uncertain.
The trend underneath the Brexit debate is a growing recognition that a new basis for UK-EU cooperation in higher education is needed. That recognition is not yet matched by action. Policymakers and academics are approaching the issue differently than they did five years ago — with more nuance, more awareness of the complexities involved.
But nuance does not pay for research grants or fund student places. The shift is towards a new era of cooperation and competition. UK universities remain world-class institutions.
They still attract top talent from across the globe. But the frictionless relationship with Europe that existed before 2016 is gone.
Rebuilding something like it will require a concerted effort from both sides. Watch this space. The consequences of Brexit for UK universities are still unfolding, and the sector is far from settled.
