UK universities 'face disaster' without clear Brexit plan

A leading vice-chancellor has warned that British universities face “a moment of great trauma” in the next few weeks if the government does not make clear its post-Brexit plans for EU residents in the UK. (File Photo)

UK universities face “a moment of great trauma” unless the British government makes clear its post-Brexit plans for European Union residents in Britain, a leading college official has warned.

In an interview with the Guardian newspaper published on Wednesday, Professor Stuart Croft of Warwick University said that the possibility of no deal being struck to exit the EU was “utterly bizarre”, and that academic institutions needed certainty over EU residency rights by the end of 2017 to avoid seeing European staff at all levels deciding to leave.

“A lot of organizations – not just universities – feel that there will be a moment when either some form of deal is likely or no deal is likely. And at the ‘no deal is likely’ moment – it could be in December, it could be four weeks away – then people will start to make some big decisions about their futures,” Croft said.

“For all of us in different organizations, that could be really, really uncomfortable. And four weeks is really not a very long time. We absolutely need a deal.”

Exiting the EU without a deal would be “a moment of really great trauma potentially for us as individuals and also for our institutions”, Croft added.

Croft’s warning comes as universities across Britain are reluctantly drawing up plans to cope with the Britain’s planned exit from the EU in March 2019.

Many colleges say they are unable to adequately look ahead because of the lack of Brexit detail coming from the government.

EU leaders have been increasingly frustrated about divisions in Prime Minister Theresa May's cabinet over Brexit, saying they were still unsure what the UK wanted, even after five rounds of negotiations.

EU President Donald Tusk warned Britain on Friday that it has two weeks to make “much more progress” on Brexit negotiations in order to begin talks by the end of the year about a future trade deal.