Brexit will be very damaging for students and faculty at UK universities, which receive much EU money.

Prediction that Brexit would be very damaging ('a bone cruncher') for students and faculty at UK universities. Judge it several years after Brexit took effect, as of the end of 2024. True: the evidence shows severe, broad harm attributable to Brexit, such as a large loss of EU research funding or participation (for example exclusion from or sharply reduced Horizon funding), large falls in EU student enrolment, loss of Erasmus+, and significant EU staff departures or recruitment problems, described by sector bodies as seriously damaging. Mostly true: clear and significant Brexit-caused harm across most of these areas, but somewhat milder than 'bone cruncher', or partly mitigated. Mixed: some real harms (for example a fall in EU students) roughly offset by mitigations (for example Horizon reassociation, the Turing scheme, more non-EU students), so the overall impact was moderate. Mostly false: only minor or narrow Brexit-attributable effects, with university finances, staffing and student numbers largely unaffected by Brexit itself. False: no meaningful Brexit-attributable damage to UK university students or faculty.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Brexit has not been as bad for the UK’s EU staff retention as was feared Times Higher Education · 19 May 2026

   “UK participation in Horizon Europe was paused after Brexit and restored only in 2023, resulting in the share of EU-funded income won by UK universities declining from 16 per cent in 2019 to less than 11 per cent in that year, according to one study.”

2. E2 Brexit has not been as bad for the UK’s EU staff retention as was feared Times Higher Education · 19 May 2026

   “And the number of EU students in the UK fell sharply after they became liable for full international fees in 2021; the number of new starters was 57 per cent lower in 2023-24 compared with 2020-21, according to the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory.”

3. E3 Brexit has not been as bad for the UK’s EU staff retention as was feared Times Higher Education · 19 May 2026

   “The proportion accounted for by EU nationals also fell post-Brexit by two percentage points to 15 per cent – but that is only one percentage point lower than the figure in 2014-15.”

4. E4 Brexit tore apart European science — now the research rifts are healing Nature · 18 June 2026

   “Ten years after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, there are signs that their relationship in research is healing.”

E1 reports that UK participation in Horizon Europe was paused after Brexit, with UK universities' share of EU-funded income falling from 16% in 2019 to under 11%, before the UK rejoined in 2023. E2 reports that new EU student starters were 57% lower in 2023-24 than in 2020-21, after EU students became liable for international fees. Against these harms, E3 finds the EU share of academic staff fell only two points to 15%, under a headline saying staff retention was not as bad as feared, and E4 reports UK-EU research ties recovering. Taken together, there was real harm to funding and EU student numbers, partly offset by Horizon reassociation and limited staff losses, so the overall impact looks moderate rather than a 'bone cruncher'.