Brexit’s impact on universities: how is this being presented in the key overseas markets for UK higher education?
By: Academic Minds
Tags: Foreign Affairs, Students, UK Politics, University, Brexit

Brexit’s impact on universities: how is this being presented in the key overseas markets for UK higher education? Academic Minds Feb 7, 2019·5 min read

The venerable US magazine Foreign Policy recently published an article titled ‘The Brexit-Fueled Death of the British University’. It argued that while for centuries UK universities have been preeminent as “the training ground for world leaders and the stomping ground for top minds”, Brexit’s damaging effects would end that hegemony.

How the international media addresses Brexit’s impact on academia is significant, because of how it shapes the perceptions of prospective students (and their parents). If fewer EU students can afford or are inclined to study in the UK after Brexit, recruitment from key overseas markets including the US, India and China will become even more important. How is UK higher education post-Brexit being discussed in international media and should it be a cause for concern amongst British vice-chancellors?

How Brexit is discussed overseas

While UK residents struggle to escape news about Brexit, it doesn’t have quite so resolute a hold on headlines in the rest of Europe. After speaking at a German business conference, the Chancellor Philip Hammond noted that he was “struck once again during that visit by the ‘asymmetry of attention’ to this issue. For us, Brexit is the dominant focus; for many of our continental partners, it is just one among many challenges vying for attention”. Outside of the EU, Brexit is an even less significant matter for media organisations. Even if it does not grab every headline in Washington, Delhi or Beijing though, the different aspects of Brexit do receive coverage away from the front page, including the impact leaving the EU will have on UK universities. On that front, academia should be wary of how its future prospects are being portrayed.

The end of UK universities’ “hegemony”?

When writing about Brexit threatening British dominance of higher education, the Foreign Policy article had not forgotten about how the global rankings and endowment size of US universities like Harvard, Yale and MIT are more than competitive with the best of the UK. Instead, the article was making a point both about the remarkable historical longevity of British higher education’s reputation (“Neither World War I nor World War II nor the English Civil War nor the fall of the Holy Roman Empire stopped students from wanting to go to Oxford and Cambridge”) and the modern day excellence which means that “dozens of heads of state continue to receive their education in Britain”.

That historic and cultural hegemony within global higher education is what could be shaken. Elite universities may weather it better than other institutions, but this American publication believes that British academia as a whole will not be as robust after Brexit. Foreign Policy links the UK’s expected losses in EU students, academics and funding, to how leading continental universities are “undoubtedly trying to take advantage of Brexit” through measures like offering more English language undergraduate courses designed to appeal to international students. It is not just that Brexit diminishes what UK higher education has to offer overseas students; it is that other nations are seizing the opportunity to position themselves as increasingly attractive destinations.

Brexit-Britain becoming a less welcoming country for foreign students is also a topic of discussion in overseas media. India’s The Economic Times drew attention to what it casts as a “right wing anti-immigrant agenda” which has stalled progress on improving international students’ access to work visas. Readers of The Times of India will have seen an article which framed a UK recruitment drive for more Indian and Chinese students as resolutely driven by economic necessity. Comments from a Buckingham University professor opining that “British students may feel increasingly uncomfortable at universities dominated by Chinese and Indian students” won’t reassure potential applicants from those countries that UK campuses would be welcoming environments.

Making British voices heard in overseas news coverage

UK universities and higher education professionals are aware of how international coverage of Brexit could impact their prospects. British perspectives have appeared in overseas media to help present the story of Brexit and academia in a more positive light. When interviewed by China’s Xinhua News Agency, Surrey’s vice-chancellor emphasised that along with efforts to increase recruitment of international students from Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, UK academia is taking the need for domestic investment seriously. Acknowledging the challenge for UK universities of adjusting to the loss of EU funds, Professor Gaoqing highlighted the “tremendous uplifting in the total amount of money invested in research and development” planned by the UK government.

Bearing in mind that there is a small industry focused on helping international students get into top UK universities (and no doubt keen that demand for their services does not collapse), non-academics are also speaking up for the enduring value of a British university education post-Brexit. The British founder of a Hong Kong-based university admissions consultancy spoke to the South China Morning Post about the uncertainty caused by Brexit. After addressing the impact on EU recruitment and funding, he concluded optimistically that Hong Kong’s “hard-working and bright students will find UK universities as receptive as ever to their applications, perhaps even more so post-Brexit.”

Negative press coverage overseas will not affect all UK universities equally. As the Foreign Affairs article concedes, for Oxford and Cambridge, their “prestige alone can marshal the students, staff, and funding that will likely be lost”. The other members of the Russell Group of elite universities should also continue to thrive, the likes of UCL, Imperial and LSE having established impressive international reputations. Those British universities which do not have global name recognition will face the greatest challenge in overcoming negative media coverage in countries they would normally hope to recruit from. Depending on whether or not the UK leaves the EU with a constructive deal, there is still scope for the tone of those news stories to improve, or to become even more damaging for UK universities.

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