BREXIT Affecting CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY Enrollment

What do you know; it’s another Brexit story after quite some time. It’s been related in numerous news articles online how the current status of the United Kingdom across several sectors after it voted to leave the European Union has been in something of a slow decline, or a roller coaster. Travel to the continent has gotten expensive; stock markets wavered; racial discrimination and harassment have become blatant. As the supporters of both sides continue to drum up attention while blaming the negative aftereffects on the other side of the argument, another sector has spoken up on how badly they’re faring months after the Brexit vote: higher education.

As The Guardian tells it, the University of Cambridge, one of the biggest names in UK schooling alongside Oxford, King’s College London and many more, has expressed concern about its enrollment numbers post-Brexit vote, as a significant number of its students from EU countries have opted to leave, with new enrollments per year projected to be lower by two-thirds the usual. They further calculate that the number of already admitted EU students in both undergraduate and postgraduate levels to drop astronomically from 1,100 to about 400, according to a submission by the university to the Parliament’s education select committee.

Part of the statement read: “Assuming that EU students move to the unregulated international [tuition fees] rate, it is almost certain that application numbers will fall further. We are currently modeling a two-third reduction in admissions from the non-UK EU.” Further the testimony said that Cambridge is dreading a “cliff-edge” for EU admissions to it and other UK universities owing to the change in regulations that have sprung forth in the limbo period from the referendum last June, to when the government will finally initiate the formal proceedings to finalize the separation of the UK from Europe.

One of the changes that have soured EU students from attending UK universities is that the new immigration laws in place for the country – one of the pro-Brexit campaigners’ Holy Grails – now requires all Europeans to get a visa before being allowed to study or work in Britain, the non-necessity of which in the past has enabled many to get a good British education. Also damaging is the inevitable hike of tuition fees due to the UK now compelling international tuition rates from Europeans rather than the same tuition for British students, usually double the amount.

There have been negative effects for the universities as well; before Brexit the UK received a substantial amount of EU funding for research being conducted in their universities, the second highest funds after Germany. Post-Brexit there is no more extra funding. These are but some of the reasons why most British academics voted to stay rather than leave in the referendum.

Photo Credit to http://schoolsweek.co.uk/