The final Brexit deal is looming and what are its implications for EU students?
Previously the UK HE sector enjoyed a tsunami of EU students to its HEIs in comparison to its current prospects. Already the numbers are dwindling.
Before too much talk of Brexit, in 2013/2014, of a total of 2,299,355 (HESA) students enrolled at UK universities, the UK welcomed a total of 125,300 EU students into its HEIs, of which 73,100 were undergraduates (UKCISA). They might only make up 5%, but what would the UK student body look like without these students? Currently, EU students pay the same fees (up to £9000) and have the same benefits as UK students, apart from the fact that they are not eligible for the maintenance loan – an interesting point we will come back to.
Depending on the final deal, Brexit could entail an increase in fees for EU students to the same cost as international students (often at least £11,000/year), which is payable upfront. Simply put, EU students would be considered the same as, and would have to start competing with, international students. It is inevitable that such a fee hike would result in a decrease in the number of EU students to UK HEIs, especially as the number of cheaper courses in English offered by universities in other member states is on a steady rise.
So how will the universities fill this gap left by EU applicants?
The answer seems clear cut: with UK students (1). This may seem a favourable situation for the UK, but as the if these UK students were not previously offered a place, it indicates that the quality was not sufficiently high. This means that if universities start to offer places to these students, it will invariably lower the quality of students entering UK universities and securing a place at university will become easier.
Again, this might appear to be an attractive prospect, but the consequence of qualification inflation among the UK population will not do any favours to the labour market when an increase in British graduates are eagerly seeking jobs, or rather to the students themselves as competition for jobs becomes tougher. If the places are occupied by EU students, at least they will spend three years contributing to the British economy and then a good proportion return to seek employment at home or elsewhere in Europe.
A frequent concern posed by Eurosceptics is the prospect of the UK funding an increasing number of EU students, since they have the same entitlement to fee loans as UK students. This is to say that they worry that EU students will benefit from loans provided by the UK taxpayer’s money and then return to their home countries, avoiding repayment.
We can identify a series of holes in this argument. Firstly, EU students are only entitled to the fee loan and not the maintenance loan. Therefore, if we go back to the subject of UK students filling the gap left by EU students, the UK finds itself in the potential situation of having to fund 125,300 more maintenance loans. Based on the 2013/2017 figures, if a typical maximum maintenance loan is £8700 (2) and a course lasts 3 years, the UK students replacing the EU students could potentially cost the UK taxpayers around £1,907,910.00 (3) more than the amount they would have to fund the EU students.
Furthermore, we can say that there is just as much risk that the UK students do not repay their loans as the EU students, especially if an increased number of UK graduates implies that finding a job in the UK would be more difficult.
It can also be added that those EU students studying in Scotland pay the same fees as Scottish students (no more than £2000/year), lowering the borrowed amount in this area. If these EU students were replaced by students from England and Wales, who would have to pay the higher rate of up to £9000 (of course, some will be replaced by Scottish students, who cost the same as EU students), the UK taxpayer would have to fund around an extra £7000/year per student.
We can add that if EU students are not eligible for a maintenance loan, they are forced to self-fund their stay in the UK, suggesting that they come from wealthier backgrounds. With the more vigorous overseas assessment that the Student Loans Company have now adopted and with wealthier backgrounds, we can even suggest that in some cases EU students are more likely to earn the minimum salary for repayment and pay off their loan, especially if we take into consideration that the top two EU-sending countries are Germany and France (UKICISA).
On a cultural level, without EU students attending UK universities, British universities risk becoming more inward-looking and domestic students’ exposure to European culture, traditions and ways of life will diminish. Moreover, this inward-looking environment and a decreased contribution from EU students would impact the quality and approach of the scholarly research produced in the UK.
This argument on the impact on research – and there are others – can be saved for another time, but suffice it to say that the UK’s exit from the EU would impact greatly on higher education even solely in terms of the quality of students, student funding and the student experience.
(1) Currently, there is a minimum number of EU and UK students that universities can offer places to, and then over this number, they can offer as many places to international students as they see fit. EU and UK students are treated equally in this minimum quota, so the international students could not occupy the places left by EU students. EU students would become international students and the places would be left to UK students only.
(2) Living away from home, outside London (Student Finance England)
(3) Based on 73,100 loans of £8700 per year for 3 years
European Higher Education Hub 