Brexit Causes Collapse in European Research Funding for Oxbridge
Oxbridge, Britain’s leading university system of Oxford and Cambridge, has been hit hard by Brexit. The European Union has traditionally provided hundreds of millions of euros in research grants to these universities and the vote to leave the EU in June 2016 has reduced these grants substantially.
The Pre-Brexit Reality:
Before Brexit, the EU was Oxbridge’s largest single research funder. Nearly 40% of the total research funding that Oxbridge received came from Europe, amounting to over €500 million a year. This research funding allowed Oxbridge to conduct research far beyond what it could have done alone, solidifying its status as a world-leading institution.
Brexit Causes Uncertainty for the Future:
The vote to leave the EU has caused considerable uncertainty for Oxbridge and its research funding.
The severance of ties with the EU has made major sources of research funds inaccessible and uncertain. This has led to a palpable drop in the number of research grants for Oxbridge. The universities have instead turned to domestic sources of funding, but this has meant a drastic drop in grants.
Impact on Oxford and Cambridge:
The effects of this major change in research funding are already being felt in many areas. Here are a few of the ways that Brexit is impacting Oxbridge:
- Decrease in Research Output: Brexit has caused a large decrease in research output from both Oxford and Cambridge. Without the necessary resources or grants, many projects have been put on hold. This has wider implications for universities, who rely on high-caliber research output to attract and retain world-class faculty and students.
- Less Collaboration with International Scientists: As a direct effect of the loss of EU grants, Oxbridge students and researchers no longer have the same access to collaborations and resources from within the EU. International projects have been especially impacted due to the burden of increased bureaucracy and paperwork for visa applications post-Brexit.
- Impact on Funding Cultures: The loss of EU funding has also had an impact on the culture of funding. Without the EU grants, universities are focused on generating short-term income in order to support the current staff pay and research projects. This makes it difficult to create a longer-term culture of sustainable funding that prioritizes the well-being of students, faculty and staff in the long run.
Conclusion:
The vote to leave the EU in June 2016 has had a substantial and lasting impact on the research funding for Oxbridge. The universities have had to resort to domestic sources of funding and have suffered a drastic drop in the number of grants that are available. The effects of Brexit in this regard have been far-reaching, having an impact on research output, collaboration with international scientists, and funding cultures.
The announcement that the UK has left the European Union has already had a great effect on the research funding offered to the world-renowned universities of Oxford and Cambridge. University staff of the two respective institutions have spoken of the “catastrophic” effects of the Brexit, and revealed that their access to European research funds has almost evaporated.
The European Union’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions have long allowed UK universities to bid for funding for joint research projects with their European counterparts. However, since the UK’s withdrawal from the Union, and the denial of access to most aspects of the new Horizon Europe programme for research, Oxbridge, amongst other UK institutions, is losing out on major research funding.
It appears that although the government has emphasised its commitment to “strengthening scientific, research and technology engagement”, EU regulations now explicitly state that the UK is no longer eligible for major research grants – now only valued at a tenth of what they were previously.
The issue is causing severe economic and social pressure on UK Universities as a whole, otherwise known as the “double-effect”, as funding is both decreasing and being diverted elsewhere. Most Colleges at the two institutions have already reported losses of millions in research contracts, severely undermining the ability of research groups to innovate and compete at the highest levels.
The potential repercussions of this cut-off of research funds for Oxbridge will be felt for many years to come, with students and faculty alike questioning the capacity of the universities to remain world-class institutions with the UK being denied so much European funding.
Ultimately, only time will tell what effects this will have on research production and economic stability in the UK. It is, however, already clear that the effects of the Brexit will cause decades of serious financial difficulty for universities.