University of Oxford appeals to Theresa May for greater clarity on future of EU staff Brexit could have dire consequences for global research, staff employment and academic funding, warns Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson. Oxford University has […]

Brexit could have dire consequences for global research, staff employment and academic funding, warns Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson.

Oxford University has been crowned the world’s number one university, beating far wealthier institutions such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton, but Prof Richardson warned the ranking could be put in jeopardy by Brexit. She appealed to the government of Theresa May for greater clarity on the future of Oxford’s staff who are from the EU.

The fallout from the June 23rd decision dominated the vice-chancellor’s oration at Convocation House, in Oxford, earlier this week.

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‘We should not be judged by passport colour’

“I have spent my professional life in universities in different countries in which one was judged by the quality of one’s mind not the colour of one’s passport. We must maintain that attitude,” said Prof Richardson.

She said she had never before been forced to consider where her academic staff came from, but paid tribute to the EU citizens who had made a significant contribution to global research and whose future at the institution was unclear.

“I have spent my professional life in universities in different countries in which one was judged by the quality of one’s mind not the colour of one’s passport. We must maintain that attitude” Professor Louise Richardson

“Professor Constantin Coussios helped develop a machine that kept two human livers alive outside the body before they were successfully transplanted into other people. The technology could double the number of livers available to people on transplant waiting lists.

“Professor Luciano Floridi is the University’s Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information. Google has appointed him to their Advisory Council on the Right to be Forgotten, giving him influence on one of the most hotly debated principles in information use.”

And, finally, in a dig at the champions of Brexit, Richardson said: “Professor Martin Seeleib-Kaiser’s work on comparative social policy… he demonstrated that migrants aged 20-34 from European countries actually had higher employment rates and were less likely to seek jobseekers’ allowance than their UK peers. His findings have informed several governments and the EU Commission, (though evidently not the leaders of the recent Leave Campaign!)”

EU nationals – a ‘bargaining chip’

Seventeen percent of staff at Oxford University are EU citizens and Prof Richardson said it “would help us greatly if the government were to guarantee the right to remain to all EU citizens who are resident in the country.”

“It is difficult to plan when you don’t know the parameters of the playing field,” she said.

Despite May dedicating a speech at the Tory party conference earlier this week to Brexit, the status of EU nationals remains murky. Part of the confusion lies in some of the more eager Brexiteers in the party going off script.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox – speaking on the sidelines of the conference in Birmingham – said the uncertainty of EU nationals living here is “one of our main cards“. He was condemned by Labour for using the status of UK residents as a bargaining chip.

‘Enough of experts’

“Twelve per cent of our research budget comes from the EU. Last year this amounted to £67 million. Without this funding there is no way we would have attained our No. 1 Global Ranking,” said Professor Richardson.

The Oxford University vice-chancellor called for UK academic institutions to be able to compete for the same funding and participate in the same international collaborations despite Brexit.

But the UK’s academics and researchers may fear they’ve found themselves on the wrong side of history after Michael Gove told Faisal Islam in the lead-up to the referendum “the British people have had enough of experts.”

Although Gove was widely derided for his comments, academia may be left wondering who will safeguard their research, staff and funding when part of what whipped up the anti-EU feeling that led to Brexit was a distrust of lofty thinkers and what was seen as out-of-touch institutions.