Naturally Unnatural Issue #3: 29th April 2017 | Page 3

Issue #2, 22 nd April
Brexit and beyond:
The challenges for
higher education
within the UK
By Matthew Clifton
Higher education is vitally important
for the UK but with Brexit there has
been significant pressure and uncer-
tainty hanging over the sector. The
government have failed to address
these issues with bold claims that they
will still be able have a significant
global reach, but with funding cuts it is
only the major universities that have a
considerable amount of assets that are
able to continue to produce high quali-
ty education in the future.
The global success of HE in the UK high-
lights the outreach. UK universities are
highly regarded throughout the world
and usually there are 3 or 4 in worlds top
10. Plus, UK universities produce world-
class research. It produces 15.9% of
This week the Education Committee pub- world’s most highly-cited articles and
ranked first by field-weighted citation
lished the 9th report on Exiting the EU:
impact, a key indicator of research quali-
challenges and opportunities for higher
ty and ahead of the USA and comparative
education. The inquiry started in 2016,
they have taken 197 written submissions countries. The UK is also the second most
including from 40 universities and sever- popular destination for international stu-
dents and extremely valuable to the UK,
al oral inquiries in Westminster.
in 2011-12, the sector produced £73 bil-
lion for the economy, contributed 2.8% of
The background of UK
GDP and supported over 750,000 jobs.
higher education (HE)
With strong ties to the EU and Europe,
3
collaboration and cooperation with insti-
tution on the continent are facilitated by
free movement of students and staff to
and from the EU alike, membership of
significant EU research programmes that
provide significant funding to institutions
within the UK and collaborations. Lastly,
membership of Erasmus, that provides
funding for staff and student placements
abroad. The committee states that that
Brexit creates significant uncertainty for
the sector and the Higher Education and
Research Bill that is making its way
through parliament adds to that uncer-
tainty, however, haven’t considered its
impact in this report.
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