University vice-chancellors say Brexit has already damaged Britain’s reputation

Eighty per cent of university vice-chancellors say the Leave vote has put Britain's global reputation in higher education at risk

Many university vice-chancellors believe the standing of UK universities is at risk after Brexit (Chris Radburn/PA)

Eighty per cent of university vice-chancellors fear the UK’s global reputation for higher education is already at risk following the vote to leave the EU.

More than three-quarters of UK vice-chancellors who replied to a survey by the Liberal Democrat education spokesman, John Pugh, said Brexit was a risk to the international standing of UK universities.

The vice-chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, Prof Alistair Fitt, said: “The EU vote, combined with [the] Visa regime, can be interpreted as ‘we are not open for business’.”

John Pugh received 48 replies to letters to all 148 of the UK’s vice-chancellors.

Professor Cliff Allan, vice-chancellor of Birmingham City University, said he believed Brexit “will limit both the scale, nature and qualities of [the] UK’s high international standing”.

Professor Stuart Croft, vice-chancellor of the University of Warwick, said that the “inability to access [EU] funds will impact the collaborations of the finest minds to solve some of our most pressing problems”.

More than 80 per cent of respondents said that free movement of people was essential for academic research and collaboration.

Bristol University feared modern language degrees were now vulnerable, particularly modern languages for which “mobility is an essential part” through the EU-run Erasmus scheme.

Mr Pugh said: “While Theresa May, Boris Johnson and David Davis endlessly repeat ‘Brexit means Brexit’, this research confirms that our most important academic institutions are seeing their international reputation thrown into jeopardy.

“Until we know what their post-Brexit plan is we should not continue with reforms to university funding and research. The changes that were proposed before the Leave vote are simply not fit for purpose now.”

Professor Peter Strike, vice-chancellor of the University of Cumbria, said it was “difficult to see the UK government being able to provide a 100% uplift”. The UK is currently a net beneficiary of EU funding for universities.