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LONDON: Despite the prestige of Oxford and Cambridge and other major universities, EU students are warning that Britain will be less attractive after Brexit, with fees to skyrocket and legal tangles still to be resolved.
“It’s getting quite difficult to decide whether the UK will be the place where the best students will come,” said 23-year-old Polish graduate Michal Gren, who is considering applying for a master’s degree in Britain.
Daniel Haid, a 27-year-old German student at Sheffield Hallam University in northern England, said he had asked other EU students if they would reapply now.
“The answer is usually emphatically ‘no,'” said Haid, who is in the second year of a PhD in sports engineering and is a student ambassador for the UK Council on International Student Affairs, an advisory body.
“We have the luxury of being EU citizens. Instead, we have so many good options,” he said.
In his opinion, Britain’s new regime “is not really a competitive offer.”
“Unfortunately there will be fewer European students, I’m afraid,” agreed Laura Langone, 31, who is in the third year of a Ph.D. in philosophy at Cambridge University.
“I know many people who did not dare to apply, people who will start their careers from September 2021.”
Dominik Frej, 22, an aerospace engineering student at Queen Mary University of London, leads a federation of Polish students, numbering about 8,000 in the UK.
“This number will drop by 75 percent, for sure,” he said.
There has already been a drop in EU student application: from 6,480 last year to 5,220 this year, according to the University and College Admissions Service (UCAS).
“HUGE MONEY”
The biggest hurdle for future EU students will be money once Britain is no longer subject to the bloc’s rules as of January 1.
International tuition fees exceed £ 40,000 (US $ 54,000) for degrees like medicine.
The fee for a student visa is approximately £ 350 and approximately £ 500 to use the state National Health Service.
EU students will no longer qualify for UK student loans and the higher costs will hit the poorest EU countries the most.
This is “a lot of money” for the Poles, Gren said.
“From now on, not your academic potential and your knowledge will decide whether you will study in the UK, but your financial background,” said Frej, who is studying remotely from Warsaw to save money.
Some EU countries do not charge tuition fees.
Langone, who comes from Basilicata in southern Italy, won a prestigious scholarship to cover her expenses in Cambridge.
His fear is that “people like me, after Brexit, may not get this kind of support.”
SEMESTER ABROAD
Brexit will also affect opportunities for students to move freely for academic purposes.
Haid said he chose Sheffield Hallam after one semester through Erasmus +, an EU-wide student exchange program. But it is not clear whether Britain will continue to participate.
Universities UK told AFP that “the UK government should prioritize” full partnership with Erasmus + and, if not, commit to fully fund a national alternative.
Students and advocacy groups are pushing the government to clarify confusing rules and unanswered questions that could affect whether EU students apply to UK institutions from 2021.
One anomaly is that universities often require three years of residence in the UK to be able to pay tuition fees “from home” rather than international ones, which can be three or four times higher.
However, to apply for ‘pre-settled’ status in the UK, EU citizens only need to visit one day before December 31st.
“The government must urgently provide clarity,” said the Universities UK spokesman.
This potentially affects current applicants, who are unsure whether a short visit now would qualify them for the home or for reduced fees.
Admissions officers are telling applicants that they “don’t know” and will have information in January, said Polish student representative Frej.
The December 31 deadline also affects first-year students who started their studies remotely from their home countries due to Covid-19.
If they don’t visit the UK this year but come later, they could shell out student visas, international fees and a fee to use the NHS.
An advocate for EU citizens in the UK, Maike Bohn, argues that students should not be punished for avoiding non-essential travel.
This affects “a few thousand” students, he estimated.
His organization, the3million, has urged the government to waive the visitation requirement for remote students.
“You can be extremely stiff and tough, or you can think, ‘These are probably the best and the brightest, so why not?'” Bohn said.
