Brexit and Higher Education: Impact of the European Higher Education in the World Initiative on Higher Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday IV)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Knowledge collaboration and global governance

Proposal

The aim of this paper was to explore current literature focused on the United Kingdom’s (UK) decision to separate itself from the European Union (EU) and the impact it may have on the ability to recruit international faculty, students, and obtain research funding within higher education. This paper will present an overview of what Brexit is, and identify five concerns that higher education institutions and its stakeholders have related to the UK’s decision. The paper will address these concerns in greater detail. The overarching question posed here is: What are the implications of Brexit on the recruitment of international faculty, students, and the ability to obtain research funding?
BREXIT AND HIGHER EDUCATION
Focusing on the possible threats both financial and political that Brexit poses for international and domestic higher education, a previous paper briefly identified and discussed four areas of concern. University students, faculty, researchers, higher education staff and administrators at domestic and international institutions are among the stakeholders who will be impacted by the UK’s decision to leave the EU. The four areas of concern identified and presented here are institutional ranking, research collaborations and funding, free-movement and immigration issues, and academic credit exchange.
HIGHER EDUCATION POST- BREXIT
The full impact of the decision for the UK to withdraw from the EU appears to be unknown. As the withdrawal from the EU progresses, the UK government needs to work to strengthen its relationships and partnerships with institutions and organizations within the EU in order to continue attracting researchers and students (Stokstad, 2016). To ensure funding remains available for research, Stokstad (2016) stated that the UK needs to replace lost funding or buy-in to the research grant programs offered through the EU, ensuring funding remains available to researchers.
DISCUSSION
Higher education stakeholders have legitimate concerns regarding the impact of the UK’s separation from the EU. Academics feel the decisions made by the government do not reflect their wishes, and are already showing signs of detrimental consequences to higher education and its stakeholders. Many students, faculty, and researchers are clinging to a “wait and see” attitude towards the potential fallout of Brexit, while others are taking proactive approaches by planning for worst-case scenarios. Students concerned with the limitations Brexit may have on their educational mobility and academic funding are waiting for additional unexpected changes that hinge on Brexit’s outcome.
In preemptive moves, students are transferring to institutions outside the UK and EU to universities that are welcoming and accommodating the special needs and circumstances of international scholars. Researchers are prematurely dissolving collaborative partnerships with colleagues to mitigate complications and lost funding expected, as a result of Brexit. Universities are “advocating for uninterrupted funding streams, open visa regimes for researchers and students, and continued mobility via programs like Erasmus, which allow European students to study abroad in any other member state, free of cost” (Kinstler, 2016).

Authors

• Andrew Scott Herridge, Texas Tech University

• Lisa James, Texas Tech University