University staff morale hit by Brexit fears

Brexit is casting a shadow over staff morale and recruitment in universities, but has not yet dealt a major blow to the hiring and retention of European Union citizens, the latest higher education workforce survey has shown.

A third of the 71 universities that took part in the study released by the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) on 31 July said the EU referendum has had an impact on their ability to recruit staff from the EU, with a similar proportion reporting some impact on retention.

However, for the majority of these, the impact was minor. Only 8.6 per cent of higher education institutions said they had seen anything more than a minor impact on both recruitment and retention.