First decrease after almost a decade of unbroken growth blamed on vote for Brexit at Commons committee hearing

Applications from EU students for places at UK universities have dropped by more than 7% according to latest figures, a committee of MPs investigating the impact of Brexit on higher education has been told.

It is the first decrease in applications from EU students to study in the UK after almost a decade of unbroken growth and will inevitably be blamed on last year’s vote to leave the EU.

There has also been a nearly 5% fall in the number of applications from UK students and a 0.26% drop in international students, the provost of one of the UK’s most prestigious universities has told MPs.

The figures, which relate to the January deadline for applications to the university admissions clearing house Ucas, were disclosed during a hearing of the Commons education select committee.

Professor Michael Arthur, who is president and provost of University College London (UCL), told the committee that applications at his institution had held up well because of the continuing lure of central London, but said there would be huge variations across the country.

UCL has among the largest number of EU students of any university, with 5,000 making up 12.5% of the entire student body. Prior to the referendum Arthur warned that a vote for Brexit could cost universities tens of millions of pounds in lost fees from EU students choosing to study elsewhere.

He told the committee: “If we look at what’s actually happening at the moment, we’ve just had the 15 January deadline on applications. I’ve got the data for the whole sector and the data for UCL in front of me.



“If we look at UK students, home students, there’s a 4.97% decrease nationally. If you look at EU, there’s a 7.43% decrease, and overseas, other non-EU international students are down 0.26%.”

He added: “The respective numbers for UCL are quite different. We are up in UK by 5%, we are down in EU by just 0.8%, and we are up in overseas by 6.9%. So you begin to see the large variations that there will be across the country.”



Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, which is the umbrella organisation representing the higher education sector, echoed Arthur’s concerns about what she described as the “fragility” in EU numbers and warned that the UK’s competitors were seeking to take advantage.

“We are concerned about EU numbers,” she told the committee. “Bear in mind this is coinciding with our competitor countries, particularly in the EU, seeing this as a huge advantage for them. They are redoubling their marketing efforts and see Brexit as posing a good opportunity for them to recruit internationally-mobile EU students.”

Ucas said it could not comment on the figures, which are due to be published next week, but universities will be looking closely to see the price they may have to pay for the referendum vote to the leave the EU.

EU students have been a major growth area for UK universities in recent years as the number of 18-year-olds in the UK diminishes. EU applications went up by 5.9% between 2015 and 2016, and 7.4% the year before.

The proportion of UK students applying to university has held up well until now, although the cohort has become smaller – last year the number of UK applicants fell by 0.3%. This year’s more dramatic fall in UK applications could be linked in part to the scrapping of bursaries for nursing and midwifery courses, where students now have to apply for loans.

University leaders addressing Tuesday’s committee urged the government to provide clarity and reassurance to both EU students who might be thinking of applying to the UK in the future, and EU academics working in Britain in a climate of growing anxiety.

MPs were told that many EU academics felt unwelcome and were planning to leave the UK to pursue their careers and raise their families elsewhere. Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), said that too often higher education policy was being made in the Home Office rather than the Department for Education, with disastrous consequences.

she urged the prime minister to act swiftly to reassure the thousands of EU staff working in UK universities that they will be able to remain in the country.



“We are not alone in raising concerns about the damage being caused by Brexit and the type of rhetoric being used by politicians on immigration. It is naive to believe that those comments do not make their way around the world or have any impact on how we are viewed abroad.



“The prime minister should act now and give EU staff the reassurance that they will be able to stay in the UK after we leave the EU. As well as being the right thing to do, with three-quarters of EU academics saying they are thinking of quitting the UK following the Brexit result, it is in our strategic interests to do so.”