Brexit’s Impacts on Student Mobility in Higher Education
The UK’sdecision to leave the European Union - or Brexit - has become ‘the defining
question of contemporary European politics.’ If Brexit becomes a reality, there will be a series of political, economic and social impacts on the UK, the EU and the world. This essay explores the possible impacts on the student mobility in higher education in the UK, the EU and beyond on four levels, namely individual, domestic, interstate and global levels.
1. Possible Impacts
1.1 On the Individual Level
Brexit mayaffect both student outward and inward mobility. On the individual level, themost obvious effect is that non-UK EU countries students will face high tuitionfees, because they will be charged as international students. Even though inthe transition period, those students starting their study from 2019 will enjoythe same tuition policy as currently, no one can guarantee what the policy willbe like after that. Being charged with considerably higher tuition fees,students from non-UK countries may not study in the UK. Moreover, it willreduce the UK students possibility of studying abroad, as they will not beeligible any more for the Erasmus+ programme. This will have profound impact ontheir future work placement or academic research.
1.2 On the domestic Level
Brexit will beone of the unfavorable factors of the UK’s student mobility strategy. The‘Go Global Strategy’issued by theBritish government set out the goal of sending ** millions students to studyabroad. There is no doubt that leaving the EU will restrict more students to doso. Many university in the UK have their own student outward goals articulatedin their international strategies. The foreign policy exiting the EU will havenation-wide overall influence on all the universities.
1.3 On the inter-state Level
Brexit willinfluence inter-state relations in terms of student mobility. On the one hand,student exchange programmes, for example, Erasmus+ programmes will be severely affectedunless the the UK still join the this programme. However, there is not anysignal that the UK will have achieved successful negotiation with thosecountries. On the other hand, as Theresa May stressed in her speech, she wantedBritain to be ‘A country that goes out into the world to build relationshipswith old friends and new allies alike’, it implied that beyond the Europeancontinent, inter-state relations with other states will be one of thepriorities for the UK. Educational exchange will be a fundamental factor of developingthe relations. By facilitating educational exchanges with non-EU countries willbenefit the student mobility both for the UK and its partners.
1.4 On the global level
Brexit will
surely have global impacts on the landscape of student mobility. Firstly, the
diversity of international students may change after Brexit. In 2017, the
Non-UK EU nationals accounted for 6.4 per cent of all full-time undergraduate and postgraduate
students at British universities last year (引用HESA的数据). After Brexit, this percentage willprobably reduce if there will not effective approaches to address the problem.However, the students from other countries apart from EU countries may increaseif British universities still welcome international students, as Britain enjoya number of world-leading universities, which are magnet for students from allover the world. Secondly, there might be a drop in British students studying inEU countries because of the Erasmus+ programme. Nevertheless, an increase ofstudents studying in other countries may take place as a result of a broadereducational exchange and collaboration initiatives. All in all, the wholepicture of global student mobility will transform because of Brexit.
2. Possible Solutions
At least three things can be done in this transition period before the formal Brexit to facilitate student mobility of higher education for Britain. Firstly, the establishment of a national fund for student mobility might be a reasonable solution. Secondly, it is essential to keep the status quo of Erasmus+programme and the status of EU nationals after Brexit by negotiation with EU countries. Finally, enhancing the educational collaboration under the frameworkof international relations with more countries, such as China, Russia and theUS.