THE GUARDIAN: Opportunity and risk: universities prepare for an uncertain future

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The challenges posed by Brexit are some of the most serious facing the sector, the roundtable agreed. While university leaders said student numbers had so far remained stable, they felt this was unlikely to continue. They were particularly concerned about losing EU staff and research funding. And PhD numbers – which Luke Georghiou, deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester, described as a “futures market” – are significantly down among EU and international students, reflecting the UK’s declining reputation abroad. While currency crashes have caused disruptions to the international student market in the past, it always affected one part of the world and not another, said Georghiou. The effects of Brexit will be “a tidal wave that hits all of the sector at the same time”.