Social scientists warn of economic damage of Brexit

The effects of Brexit on international staff and students could cause long-term harm to the UK’s economy, according to a report from the Academy of Social Sciences and the Campaign for Social Science.

A joint briefing on the impacts of Brexit on higher education, published on 9 December, said that one role of higher education is as an “engine of economic growth and driver of UK innovation”.

Any impact on higher education “will be felt across the UK, with a particular effect on the local and regional economies in which universities reside,” it said. Further reductions in international recruitment as a consequence of Brexit “could not only threaten the economic well-being of UK universities, but also the growth prospects of the economy as a whole.”