XHE0080

 

Written evidence submitted by Dr Philippa Steele

 

 

Senior Research Associate at the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge, and Principal Investigator of the European Research Council funded Starting Grant project ‘Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems’ (CREWS)

 

 

  1. I am a researcher based in the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge, where I run a European-funded project. My submission is made in a personal capacity and concentrates on the impact of leaving the EU on higher education and especially on the reputation of UK universities.

 

  1. What I want to underline is that it is absolutely vital for research and higher education in this country that we retain access to European funding schemes. While the government’s efforts to match some of this funding are not without merit, they can in no way provide a substitute for these excellent international resources that give researchers in the UK and across the world opportunities to fund their work and establish or develop careers in European Higher Education Institutions (hereafter HEIs). If the UK leaves the EU, there are ways of retaining access to European funding schemes such as those involved in the European Research Council’s (hereafter ERC) Horizon 2020 programme, which would involve an international agreement rendering the UK as an ‘Associated Country’ (something that has been undertaken by a number of non-EU states both within and outside Europe). I ask your Committee specifically to discuss this as a serious possibility.

 

  1. I think it is important to emphasise at this point that if the UK no longer had access to European funding schemes such as those provided by the ERC, it would not mean that UK nationals were not able to apply for them. The Horizon 2020 programme, for example, is open to people of all nationalities, but the awardee has to be based in or move to a host organisation (usually but not always a HEI) in an EU country. The effect of leaving such a programme is, I hope, obvious: large numbers of talented UK researchers will actively seek to relocate to Europe. I hope equally that I do not need to point out that it is in the country’s best interests to offer such researchers every opportunity to conduct their work at a UK HEI.

 

  1. It is also important to realise that avenues of European funding not only give UK nationals opportunities to gain funding, but also give UK HEIs opportunities to host grantees of such awards. Researchers from the EU and from overseas applying for European funding are at liberty to apply to hold the award in any country of the EU, including the UK, and as a result this country has played host to major international projects that have both furthered the country’s reputation and research output, and provided employment opportunities for UK academic and support staff. Again, the effect of leaving EU funding programmes is obvious: UK HEIs will lose its ability to play host to and benefit from European-funded projects. It is worth pointing out that this counts also for awards for individual research such as the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship, which has offered opportunities for UK researchers to work in the EU and for EU researchers to work in the UK.

 

  1. Losing access to European funding programmes would be an unmitigated – and unmitigable – disaster for UK higher education and research. If the UK exits the EU without securing continued access to these funding schemes, the country will lose many of its own talented researchers and will lose its attractiveness to not only EU but overseas researchers. The reputation of UK HEIs would be irreparably damaged, and we have already seen a beginning of this process in the new unwillingness of European researchers (since the referendum of 23rd June 2016) to enter into joint projects with UK researchers and universities, which I have witnessed first-hand and heard reports of from colleagues.

 

  1. The above emphasis on European funding schemes is something that I particularly wished to highlight because it is a particular area of expertise for me (as someone who both currently holds European funding and frequently advises other academics on how to apply for and manage such awards). I have no doubt that there will be many other submissions highlighting other aspects of higher education and research in the UK that would be put at risk by exiting the EU.

 

  1. Here I would especially like to mention freedom of movement as a vital and fundamental principle that underpins and facilitates academic research. For example, it is a testament to the prestige of UK universities that many students from the EU wish to study in the UK, and the prospect of their ability to do so being limited is a direct threat to the reputation of HEIs, not to mention to one of their most direct sources of funding. The threat is also a direct one to UK research output, which I can say hand-on-heart as a teacher, supervisor and colleague of numerous EU students whose work and research contributes to and enriches my own research and teaching environment every day. Further concerns include those related to another European-funded initiative, namely the Erasmus programme, which I have seen bring huge benefits to students by allowing them to spend periods studying abroad.

 

  1. Freedom of movement is also essential to academic researchers, whatever sort of position they hold, whether permanent or temporary and however it is funded. Research is in essence an international undertaking, whatever you work on and wherever you pursue your research. I will spell this out because I think it is not necessarily immediately obvious to anyone who does not work on research: research can only be undertaken with knowledge of and communication with the community of scholars across the world who work on similar material. Any UK academic will have to travel abroad in order to conduct research on materials held in another country, to attend conferences, to meet with colleagues based elsewhere, and so on.

 

  1. This goes for all academics, whether their post is primarily a research one or a teaching one: the UK’s Research Excellence Framework (hereafter REF) initiative in itself puts quality of research at the forefront of the responsibilities of academic staff in HEIs. According to the REF, quality of research is specifically linked to its ability to make an international impact, with the highest quality grade (four star) of the 2014 REF exercise assigned to “Quality that is world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour”. For this reason, currently UK research is significantly boosted by freedom of movement within the EU, because of the unequalled research opportunities it provides. Curtailing freedom of movement would also curtail academics’ ability to travel for work (which could come to depend on securing VISAs) and consult material in other EU countries (affecting permits, for example), and this would have a direct and devastating effect on the quality of research in the UK and on the UK’s research output.

 

  1. I hope that this submission has been useful in highlighting some of the major problems and disruptions that face UK higher education and research in the event of leaving the EU. These are serious concerns and ones shared by many of my colleagues. My arguments here are supported by informal consultation of a number of colleagues at Cambridge University, both students and academic staff. I ask you to give serious consideration to the views expressed here in your discussion.

 

 

 

 

 

November 2016