Higher education in the UK is world class, with its universities ranking amongst the best, making them attractive to international students and staff, but the UK’s impending exit from the EU has created significant uncertainty, and unless the government acts now Brexit will put this at risk, according to an enquiry by MPs on the House of Commons education committee.

“The uncertainty over EU students and EU staff needs to be reduced immediately,” the committee says in a report published this week. Guaranteeing that the 2018/19 student cohort will have the same fees and tuition loan access is one way to create short-term stability.

To protect university staff, the government should react to the delay in reaching a reciprocal agreement by unilaterally guaranteeing their rights before the end of 2017. Sixteen percent of staff in UK universities come from EU27. “A delay in confirming [their] rights will only intensify the current uncertainty for universities, and likely lead to a significant brain drain of talented staff,” the committee says.

In addition, the immigration system after Brexit must be shaped to cater more particularly for the needs of higher education, facilitating rather than obstructing, movement of people from and to UK universities.

The government should remove overseas students from its net migration target of 100,000 per year, to make it clear it wants talent to come to the UK. “The refusal to do so is putting at risk the higher education sector’s share of the international student market,” the MPs say.

Commit to Horizon 2020 and future Framework programmes

The MPs also want the government to commit to Horizon 2020 and future research frameworks, to ensure ongoing research collaboration with the EU. There should also be a contingency plan for investing the same level of funding received from the EU if access cannot be negotiated.

And while it would be better to remain part of the Erasmus+ programme, if this looks unlikely, there should be a home-grown replacement.

To support higher education there should be a new regional growth fund to replace the investment from European structural funding, according to the committee.

Whatever the exact outcome of Brexit negotiations, it is important the higher education sector is given enough notice of any changes to the migration status of EU students, their fee rate and access to loans. This will allow universities to adjust and plan ahead and ensure that changes to fees or loans do not occur midway through a student’s course.

In the committee’s view, the best model for EU students is to retain a reciprocal open approach with light touch controls, such as visa-free access, which would enable preservation of a system closely resembling freedom of movement.