Brexit hits students

No promise the perks for incoming European students will stay

Growing up in a small Italian farming town, Andrea Guerini Rocco dreamed of pursuing a career in economics in a big, bustling city.

Three years ago, he thought that city would be London. He did his undergraduate studies at the London School of Economics, earning good grades and working at analyst internships he was passionate about. He was able to afford the lower tuition for European Union students - half what other international students pay - and he didn’t need a visa to work and live in Britain.

Yet Britain’s vote to leave the European Union changed all that. When the country leaves the bloc in 2019, there’s no promise that the financial and immigration perks for incoming European students and workers will remain.

So after the Brexit vote, when Rocco was preparing to enrol in a master’s degree, he decided to move to Columbia University in New York instead. Tuition is pricy in the United States and he’ll need more paperwork - but at least there’s clarity. He knows what he’s signing up for and can plan ahead.

“If Brexit was not happening I would have stayed in London,” the 22-year-old said. “The university is great. I love LSE.”

He isn’t alone in having to reassess his plans. More than 60,000 EU students attend British universities, bringing in brain power and diversity for employers and more than 400 million pounds ($518 million) of tuition money with them each year. That’s on top of the 500 million pounds these British universities receive in EU funding annually.

This year, EU applications to U.K. schools dropped for the first time in at least five years, by 5 per cent. More than 2,500 young, bright Europeans took their talents elsewhere, rather than face the uncertainties of Brexit. The British government has promised that EU students who started before Brexit will pay reduced tuition prices and that they’ll stay visa-free until 2019 - and that’s about all they’ve promised.

If the British government doesn’t provide clarity for EU citizens on visas and education funding, U.K. universities could lose over 1 billion pounds a year and some of their top students. That’s fewer bright minds staying and contributing to the British economy after graduation, innovating and producing and paying taxes - in Britain.