Britain should strike a deal with the EU to retain access to European higher education funds or set up its own “internationalist” funding system to maintain the world-beating quality of its universities, the head of UCL said today.
Professor Michael Arthur said that British universities ranked second in the world behind those of the US but would find it “more difficult” to retain their status after Brexit.
He said this was because EU membership brought “significant funding” for higher education — with Britain receiving more than it paid in — and a “ready-made system of international collaboration” that enabled academics from different countries to work easily together.
Professor Arthur said that to avoid slipping down the world league tables, the Government could aim for a deal in which British institutions would remain part of the EU funding systems in return for allowing the free movement of European students and academic staff into this country.
Alternatively, he said that Britain should set up its own system to pay for British and EU universities to work together in “international partnership” projects. He said ministers should also be ready to fund “fellowship” programmes under which grants would be given to academics from across the EU to help develop their careers.
He also warned that it would be “madness” for ministers to trigger Article 50 without having a plan for higher education and added: “If we are going to Brexit and be more stand alone, to be successful as a country, higher education and its relationship to research, innovation and the knowledge economy becomes even more important.
“You absolutely need a plan of what you are going to do with higher education, research and innovation as part of Brexit. The British Government and higher education need to work jointly on creating that plan and the fundamental principles are to maintain the excellence and the recruitment of international talent, recognise the importance of international excellence, and put the funding in place to replace the systems that exist in Europe.
“If we get it horribly wrong we could start to lose international recruits and existing EU staff at British universities. It’s also possible that we could lose some British staff.”
Professor Arthur said British industry, which benefited from graduate talent, should become “more involved” in supporting higher education and that universities should “stand up and be positive” to create the confidence that Britain would remain internationalist, innovative and outward-looking.
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