Adam Hussain came to visit the university in 2013, and training fees within the UK almost tripled to £9,000. With additional loans for living expenses, he realized he could incur £40,000 in debt. So, when he noticed a television report about an exodus of UK college students to the Netherlands, Hussain decided to attend an open day at Maastricht University. Annual prices have been €2,000 (approximately £1, seven-hundred). That year, more than 1,000 British freshers began college in the Netherlands.
“I already wanted to live abroad; when the better fees came in, it became a no-brainer,” says Hussain, 24, who attended an East London comprehensive. He chose a degree in European research and stated Maastricht became an exquisite and enriching experience. “It has had such an effect on the way I need to live my life. And my schooling price is a fraction of what I’d have in the UK.” However, with Brexit on the horizon, the number of students going abroad has plummeted. Maastricht University, one of the biggest recruiters from the UK, says programs dropped a quarter this 12 months, with the students joining last autumn. It expects a similar fall due to uncertainty surrounding Brexit.
A British Council survey 2017 discovered that the proportion of students considering studying abroad had dropped from 34% in 2015 to 18%. While the Brexit vote was especially blamed, “this could also be due to current barriers to uptake together with the fall in the cost of sterling and possibly increased safety worries,” says a British Council spokeswoman. LATELY, the UK government stated it’d boom fees for EU college students analyzing in Britain, while UK college students in the EU are likely to pay the excessive lesson fee charged to worldwide students. This has brought about calls for UK scholar loans to be made transportable so young human beings can use them to look abroad.
The president of Maastricht University, Martin Paul, says that as the final results of Brexit remain uncertain, “the manner in which this influences training fees for prospective British students is still unknown. Much of this relies on future agreements between the European Union and the UK.” Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi), says that if, after Brexit, EU college students analyzing in Britain do not have access to UK government scholar loans of £9,000 for 12 months, the spare mortgage pot ought to be used to inspire UK students to look at overseas.
He says: “As Brits, we are terrible at gaining knowledge of overseas languages and journeying overseas to examine and, theme and Brexit, our universities should come become less variovariedit’s milveryportant to encourage college students to go abroad and display that we are still outward-searching unite United StatesBut is it authentic that taking a look overseas makes students extra worldwide in their wondering and more attractive to employers? Yes, says Hussain, who lowered back to London after graduation to paint for a finance enterprise, then taught English in China, earlier than returning to Maastricht for a £2,000 master’s diploma in public coverage analysis. He graduated this year and says that even as he looks abroad, he has fuelled his enthusiasm for working globally, but it also had drawbacks.
“Some businesses are seeking people who’ve skilled worldwide environments,” he says. “In that manner, my diploma is more suitable for my employability.” Other employers, he says, maybe more reluctant to tackle a graduate from a college they do now not realize. Yasmin Bentley, 25, who graduated from Maastricht in 2015 with a 2:1 in liberal arts and technological know-how, has the same opinion. “Studying abroad has opened many doorways but, at the same time, closed a few from organizations that tend to recruit straight out of British universities,” she says.
