Skip to main content

The PIE News: Brexit spells uncertainty for EU universities

In the aftermath of the UK’s historic EU referendum, universities in Europe have been caught up in the vacuum of uncertainty created by Brexit. Speaking with The PIE News, stakeholders discussed the likely fall in incoming UK students over the coming years but said they are hopeful that it could be offset by growing interest from students from other EU states.

However, with much left to be determined, concerns are still widespread that if any radical changes do occur, the positives won’t outweigh the negatives.

A lot rests on the UK’s future relationship with the EU: if, like Switzerland and Norway, it negotiates for students to continue accessing higher education at subsidised rates and free movement within the bloc, student mobility and academic cooperation may remain relatively unchanged.

“It may happen that Brexit will not affect student mobilities from and to the UK at all, so there may be no reason at all for any ‘reshuffling’ of mobilities between the EU countries,” Tereza Fojtová, communications director at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic, said.

However, some UK students studying in the EU are already worried about the possibility that as non-EU students, they will be forced to pay higher fees.

Read more

In the aftermath of the UK’s historic EU referendum, universities in Europe have been caught up in the vacuum of uncertainty created by Brexit. Speaking with The PIE News, stakeholders discussed the likely fall in incoming UK students over the coming years but said they are hopeful that it could be offset by growing interest from students from other EU states.

However, with much left to be determined, concerns are still widespread that if any radical changes do occur, the positives won’t outweigh the negatives.

A lot rests on the UK’s future relationship with the EU: if, like Switzerland and Norway, it negotiates for students to continue accessing higher education at subsidised rates and free movement within the bloc, student mobility and academic cooperation may remain relatively unchanged.

“It may happen that Brexit will not affect student mobilities from and to the UK at all, so there may be no reason at all for any ‘reshuffling’ of mobilities between the EU countries,” Tereza Fojtová, communications director at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic, said.

However, some UK students studying in the EU are already worried about the possibility that as non-EU students, they will be forced to pay higher fees.

Read more