Brexit collapse in EU students will fuel skills gaps

A drop in the number of EU students attending UK universities could open big skills gap in large areas of the economy like construction, our event has heard.

Speaking on the panel of the Universities session at the MDC, Prof Ian Marshall, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Coventry University, said: “The changes Brexit could introduce to the university sector could be very significant. The university sector brings in large number of undergraduates and postgraduates from the EU who fill skills gaps all over the place.

“Whatever the (Brexit) decision, it may be that we see up to 100% of EU students go elsewhere in Europe quite quickly and so will see a huge drop in people in construction and engineering.”

Universities are looking at whether they are diversified enough to sustain themselves in the future with some taking “hard decisions” to pull out of international collaborations because they are no longer perceived as “profitable”.

Grant Bourhill, Interim Director of Research & Enterprise at University of Leicester, said the university sector is experiencing a time of “unprecedented uncertainty”, which may prompt changes in business models, such as his own university’s venture at Space Park. [emaillocker id=”71749″]

Professor Nigel Wright, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research & Innovation at Nottingham Trent University, said: “For many the sector is already challenging and will become more challenging. “

” The international market will continue to grow because the middle classes are growing,” he said, adding that he welcomed the publication of the government strategy for developing global education and attracting students to the UK.

Julie Stone, Associate Vice-Chancellor at Derby University, agreed. “The UK’s higher education reputation will remain strong overseas and is seen as world class education but we will have to be agile.”

She also said that the university’s own estates strategy, which is currently under discussion, must be ‘future proofed’ to enable more flexible space: “We’ve seen huge growth in Derby over the last couple of years: we need to be far more agile than have been in the past

Mark Smith, Executive Director of Business Engagement at Aston University, said that his own institution has an increasing need for more technical facilities and laboratory space: “There are challenges round making sure that laboratory space is suitable for 21^st going into the 22^nd century.”

Universities will require fewer large lecture theatres because of changes in the way that students want to learn, said Coventry’s Marshall: “If we look at how students want to learn, it’s less about sticking them in a 300-seat lecture theatre. We may have a place for the odd lecture theatre but most want social learning or working in groups: less of the sage on the stage and more facilitating learning.”

“Unfortunately, we keep changing the way we want to teach and what researchers want to do,” he said, adding that the future estate should be based not just on what is needed today but the requirements in 20 to 30 years.

Marshall said that over the last decade, the doubling in size of the number of students at the university from 17,000 to 34,000 had resulted in the redevelopment of large parts of Coventry city centre. He said that one in 25 jobs in Coventry are related to the university, contributing £2bn into the west midlands economy.

Leicester’s Bourhill gave delegates an update on progress at the Space Park, which the university is developing and a mile and a half north of Leicester on a site that is “very close” to the National Space Centre. He said the park’s first phase, the Earth Observation Data hub, is due to open in the fourth quarter of 2020.

And he said that funding is being sought for the second, the METEOR Centre for research into AI and robot-assisted low-cost satellite production. In addition, the Midlands Engine had identified the third building, the Low Cost Access to Space (LoCAS) space factory, as a priority project.

Bourhill said the new park is designed to help deliver the UK’s ambition to capture 10% of the global space market, which is expected to grow 80% to £400bn by 2030, by specialising in the development of low weight satellites. [/emaillocker]