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Post-Brexit discussions cross the Atlantic

The future of EU students and staff at UK universities was the topic of a last minute addition to the programme at the recent International ACAC conference in New Jersey.
July 22 2016
2 Min Read

An ad hoc meeting to discuss the implications of Brexit was squeezed into a packed week-long programme of the International Association for College Admission Counseling’s annual conference last week.

Under a tent during a lunch break on the campus of Rutgers University in New Jersey, representatives from UK universities took on the unenviable task of clarifying the situation for admissions counsellors from around the world.

“We do have clarity on one thing: we have no clarity,” quipped Dominic Milne, deputy head of the international office at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

“I think the universities did a good job of saying nothing is going to change for this year”

The same questions that the university receives about Brexit – when? how? who? – are the same questions the institution is asking the government, said Milne.

“The issues are the same on both sides of the desk. The only positive in the situation is that we’ll need to speak to each other even more,” he said.

Paul Teulone, director of admissions at Kings College London, said the referendum decision will affect the research income, staff and students at UK institutions.

He reassured counsellors that fees would be honoured for the incoming classes this autumn but added, “We don’t have enough clarity on the package available to them for summer 2017.”

Despite the divide in public opinion on whether the UK should remain in the EU or not, Teulone pointed out that all of the universities attending the International ACAC event were in cities were the remain vote prevailed. “We all voted clearly to be part of the EU,” he said.

Universities’ quick reactions to reassure students and the government’s announcement to honour EU fees for 2016 cohorts have reassured incoming students, but unease remains for younger prospects.

“I think the universities did a good job of saying nothing is going to change for this year,” Natalie Balme, a college counsellor at Ecole Jeannine Manuel in Paris told The PIE News.

“It is increasingly a concern for the students coming up next year because there is a lot of uncertainty there and that uncertainty is just going to grow until we know a little bit more about what’s going to happen.”

“It is increasingly a concern for the students coming up next year because there is a lot of uncertainty there”

Balme said the decision might cause the 80-100 students the school sends to the UK annually to look to other European alternatives.

“All our students are bilingual and looking to pursue studies in English so the Netherlands attracts a lot of our students increasingly because they have good English programmes and increasingly there are different options in Europe, whether it’s in Italy or Spain,” she said.

The future of research for UK universities was also brought up in the talks. “Research funding is absolutely crucial,” noted Milne.

Even faculty at Ecole Jeannine Manuel are watching the matter closely, said Balme.

“Faculty within the school aren’t engaged in research but they do realise there’s a lot of research funding that comes from the EU to UK universities,” she said.

“They are concerned about what impact that’s going to have and what’s the future of research universities in the UK.”

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