It’s been three years since Britain officially left the EU. Since then, news of COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine has dominated the headlines. Anyone who thought that Brexit was done and dusted was given a wake-up call last month when Rishi Sunak announced his new Northern Ireland Protocol deal.
The Windsor Framework put the lingering issues of Brexit back on the public radar, and despite promising to effectively complete Brexit by resolving the NI protocol once and for all, many issues surrounding the long-term effects of Brexit still remain under-discussed. One such issue is the effects on students. Has Brexit really altered the daily lives of students? Has it made travelling abroad to study more troublesome?
Firstly, Brexit has affected students in a very direct way by placing greater restrictions on the planning of years abroad. Before Brexit, the EU’s freedom of movement laws ensured students could travel abroad without a visa. However, students planning on studying in the EU for longer than six months now need to apply for a visa, a process that can be costly and time-consuming.
Students now need to think more carefully about where exactly they want to travel. The process of getting a visa can often involve demonstrating proof of funds and accommodation for the duration of study, a process that can be problematic if everything is not already in place.
Callum West, a law student at the University of Sheffield, who is currently on a year abroad at Utrecht University, Netherlands, said: “It was definitely more difficult. A student visa was required and it meant that it limited the amount of work opportunities as well as the cost of getting such a visa”.
Indeed, UK students have found their chances of getting well-paid work abroad curtailed following Brexit. Visa restrictions mean UK students are limited in how many hours they can work when in the EU, placing an even greater strain on students looking to finance their years abroad alongside additional visa costs. When asked if he felt more out-of-pocket due to restrictions, Callum said: “Yes I would say so in my experience, it has seemed to increase the cost as well as limiting student job opportunities”.
This means that for many students considering doing a year abroad, additional restrictions might act as a stumbling block if they are already struggling for finances. Callum added: “I have looked into the possibility of getting work but didn’t think the hours worked would have been worth it”. This ultimately means that students from disadvantaged backgrounds or those who receive little additional support from parents may struggle financing a year abroad in the post-Brexit era.
Meanwhile, for many students, Brexit has invariably influenced their choice of destination for their future time abroad. Henry Jones, a second-year engineering student who is looking to do a year abroad in industry, observed that visa requirements are encouraging him to look beyond Europe: “As I now have to get a visa to work in Europe, I think I’m probably going to look at New Zealand and America as well. If I have to do forms, I might as well travel far”. However, he also observed that getting a visa to work in Europe can also prove enticing for eventually regaining citizenship back inside the EU. Students now have a lot more to think about when weighing up their years abroad and how post-Brexit restrictions might impact their future ambitions.
But how is Brexit impacting students on the domestic front? For EU students travelling to study in Sheffield, Britain’s exit from the Union means EU students are now classified as international rather than ‘home’ students. This means they are no longer entitled to home-fee tuition prices of around £9,250 per year and will instead be charged the much higher international rate of approximately £15,000 per year.
Meanwhile, the EU’s Erasmus programme has also been ditched by the UK Government, replacing it with the Turing Scheme, which – although providing similar amounts of opportunities to UK students – has effectively ended straight exchanges with European universities. These two factors have already had a marked effect on EU students, who now see the UK as a much less attractive destination for studying abroad. According to recent reports, the number of EU students studying at UK universities has halved since Brexit. This has had a significant impact on the richness and diversity of our student campuses, which now find themselves closed off from the open network of Erasmus.
Finally, there can be no doubt that Brexit is a prime culprit in the current cost of living crisis, which is projected to hit students especially hard. The soaring costs of importing goods from the EU has massively contributed towards inflation, with the UK’s economy projected to perform worse than sanction-stricken Russia’s. Consequently, students have felt the pinch in that their student loans no longer go as far. The inflation rate is currently running at around 10%, whilst the boost to student maintenance loans recently announced by the government only amounts to an increase of 2.8%. This has had a domino effect in that it has invariably forced many students to take up part-time work to help finance their studies, eating into the time that could be spent studying and overall having a negative effect on mental health.
It would be difficult to disentangle Brexit from numerous other factors such as COVID-19 and the energy crisis to truly lay the woes of students solely at Brexit’s door, but nevertheless there can be no doubt that Brexit has had a marked effect on student life. From making our campuses less diverse, to restricting the financing of years abroad, Brexit has invariably made students poorer in one form or another. If any fruits are to be borne out of that fateful decision of 2016, students will want to see them sooner, rather than later.
