Brexit a bonanza for Canadian universities
When British Prime Minister Theresa May formally set in motion her country’s departure from the EU, the move underscored what could be a surprising windfall for some Canadian universitlies.
At least two major institutions say last year’s Brexit vote in the U.K. prompted a number of “stellar” academics to ask for jobs here, worried that Britain’s research and social climate is deteriorating.
Recruitment deals for some of them are likely to be consummated in the next few weeks, while a similar phenomenon has seen top American scholars reach out to Canadian universities, too, they say.
“The level of interest from outside of the country is probably unprecedented,” said Meric Gertler, president of the University of Toronto.
“Itisacrossmanydifferentdisciplines and across the demographic spectrum: post-docsandjuniorfacultyrightthrough to mid-career, to truly established stars whowanttomovehere.”
At the University of Waterloo, a number of high-level university scholars — mostly in the maths, engineering and science — contacted administrators shortly after the U.K. voted to leave the European Community last June.
Feridun Hamdullahpur, the university’s president, said he could not reveal identities but three major catches are in the final stages of negotiating contracts, the first likely to be announced within a week or two.
He described them as “stellar researchers,” at least as good as those typically awarded federally funded Canada Research Chairs.
“These are very senior, top-level academic colleagues who have contacted us to say that they were very interested in moving to Canada, moving to the University of Waterloo, right after the Brexit vote,” said Hamdullahpur.
“They cited several reasons why they were doing this, but they said that Canada would be a better place for them to raise their families, and also continue their academic careers.”
Much has been said about the surge in foreign students applying to Canadian schools in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. election, but the recruitment of topnotch and otherwise hard-to-woo faculty could have a much more lasting impact.
Like Waterloo and other universities, U of T has always recruited a sizeable chunk of its faculty from outside the country, but at a recent meeting of 100 or so department heads, Gertler asked how many had received unsolicited overtures about moving here from foreign professors recently. Three quarters shot up their hands.
A number of resulting recruitment deals are in the pipeline, with announcements expected before the end of May, he said.
“The non-Canadians who are most keen to come here are folks who emigrated to the U.S. or the U.K. from elsewhere and no longer feel quite as comfortable, or no longer feel that the future is as bright for them or as secure for them as they once thought,” he said.
A top Ivy League professor and expert in artificial intelligence told the he was in talks to decamp to an unnamed Canadian university, citing the perception that some ethnic groups are not welcome in the States. “This is not the right place to live right now,” he said.
The British academics who have approached Toronto have also cited the all-important availability of research funding. U.K. universities won a disproportionate total of the research grants issued by the EU, and stand to lose hundreds of millions of pounds because of Brexit, Gertler said.
“The conversation when I was in London last week was all about ‘How are we going to replace those funds?’ ” he said. “One academic I talked to said ‘I’m trying to recruit people to the U.K. from outside the U.K., and it’s really tough right now. And I’m losing people as well.’ ”
Not all universities seem to be benefiting from a Brexit/Trump faculty influx. Spokesmen for both Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., and the University of British Columbia said they had no evidence of a recruitment bump,whileMcGillUniversityfailedto respond to requests for comment.