Wakeling, Paul orcid.org/0000-0001-7387-4145, Dias Lopes, Alice and Mateos Gonzalez, Jose Luis (2025) Brexit as revelatory policy shock: what can we learn about international student mobility from changes in EU student mobility to the UK after Brexit? European Journal of Higher Education. ISSN 2156-8243
Abstract
The UK's exit from the European Union in January 2020, following a referendum in 2016, represented a significant potential rupture to EU student mobility to the UK. When the UK was an EU member, EU students were entitled to identical treatment to UK domestic students in higher education, able to finance undergraduate and master's fees through UK student loans (or pay no fees in Scotland) and access doctoral funding. After Brexit, EU students were treated like any other international student and liable for upfront and very high tuition fees. This policy shock has the potential to significantly disrupt full-degree EU student mobility to the UK. Using a comprehensive dataset of all EU full-degree enrolments in UK higher education, 2007 – 2023, we investigate patterns of incoming EU student mobility to the UK before and after Brexit. We find the sharp disjuncture to have both overall and more particular effects. Looking at how the shock of Brexit plays out differently across sending countries, levels and fields of study and institutional destinations provides interesting revelations about how international student mobility operates.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the University’s Research Publications and Open Access policy. |
Keywords: | Brexit,student mobility,tuition fees,European Union |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > Education (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 02 Jun 2025 11:00 |
Last Modified: | 03 Jun 2025 13:40 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/21568235.2025.2512745 |
Status: | Published online |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/21568235.2025.2512745 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:227238 |
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