Gyimah: UK wants to be in EU research 'but not at any price'

Times Higher Education (THE)

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Minister says he will ‘fight’ to ensure scientists can move freely post-Brexit

Excerpt:

Higher education minister Sam Gyimah has said that there is “no ambiguity” about the UK’s desire to continue to participate in European Union research funding schemes after Brexit, but that “we will not do it at any price”. ...

Speaking at a[n] ... event organised by the Higher Education Policy Institute and the Higher Education Academy on 22 February, Lee Jones, reader in international politics at Queen Mary University of London, said that there was “no reason why Brexit in and of itself needs to damage UK higher education in the slightest”.

“Access to Erasmus, access to the European research area, EU student recruitment are all either independent from the European Union or can be maintained through multilateral agreements or unilateral policy concessions,” said Dr Jones, who is openly pro-Brexit.

However, Dr Jones said that UK universities would find it difficult to engage academics to play a role in “defining Britain’s place on the world stage” post-Brexit because scholars have “very limited bandwidth left to deal with additional roles required by the government”, particularly in public policy or public diplomacy.

Dr Jones said that the “progressive marketisation of the higher education sector” and the “disruption that is being created to universities’ finances, to their sustainability as institutions and the impact on individual academics” meant that scholars “quite reasonably question why they should support a government’s activities when they don’t share their priorities”.