27 October 2016, 04:48 GMT
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Hard Brexit may prove disastrous for the UK higher education and the universities have not been consulted by the government on the approach to Brexit, UK media reported Wednesday.
"It [hard Brexit] would probably be the biggest disaster for the university sector for many years," Alistair Fitt, vice-chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, told an education select committee, as quoted by The Guardian newspaper.
According to the newspaper, Fitt also said that the government had mostly avoided asking for universities' opinions on Brexit.
Catharine Barnard, a professor of EU law at Cambridge University, reportedly warned the committee that other European universities would try to use Brexit to their advantage and win over academics and funding.
The United Kingdom held a referendum on June 23, 2016, deciding to leave the European Union. UK Prime Minister Theresa May said the country would trigger the Article 50 of the EU Lisbon Treaty by the end of March, thus beginning withdrawal negotiations, as well as negotiations on free trade with London's international partners.
