What are the chances for education after Brexit for Polish students in Great Britain? What higher education can gain and what it may lose on the upcoming changes in the geopolitics of Europe. What we already know and what is still unknown.
The British Council respects the democratic outcome of the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum and supports a constructive process for the UK leaving the European Union.
The British Council is calling for an ‘Open Brexit’ in which the UK seeks to maintain and grow cultural ties with Europe as the country prepares to leave the EU. This would include:
- Continued ease of movement for students, academics, researchers, arts and creative professionals, and young people engaged in cultural or educational exchanges
- Increased cultural, educational and scientific partnership with the countries of Europe, including in key EU funded programmes Erasmus+, Creative Europe and Horizon 2020 or, if this proves to be impossible in the negotiations, then their replacement with equivalent or enhanced alternatives
- Investment into the UK’s cultural and educational connections globally.
The Brexit White Paper, setting the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union was published by the Government of the United Kingdom on 12th July 2018. The paper proposes that the UK’s future economic partnership should provide reciprocal arrangements allowing citizens to travel freely, without a visa, for tourism and temporary business activity. Arrangements should also ‘facilitate mobility for students and young people, enabling them to continue to benefit from world leading universities and the cultural experiences the UK and the EU have to offer’.
One of the elements of the tightening PL-UK cooperation is YESI – a year of entrepreneurship, science and innovation, initiated by representatives of the Polish and British governments in December 2017. Another aspect of strengthening and building partnerships in the higher education sector, in line with the YESI key objectives, is the Universities UK International delegation for Poland, which the British Council organizes on October 9 and 10 in Warsaw. The delegation aims to build relations and dialogue between the United Kingdom and the European Union countries, and to exchange knowledge about higher education in Europe in the context of Brexit.
Delegation participants will include Dame Janet Beer, Vice- Chancellor of Liverpool University, Chairman of Universities UK, British Council Trustee, and Vivienne Stern, Director Universities UK International. As part of the visit, the following organisations’ representatives are scheduled to meet: the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA), the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland (KRASP) and the National Center for Research and Development (NCBR). The delegation will also be available for press interviews.
The event commences this year's program related to higher education implemented by the British Council. The next event of the programme that will take place in Kraków and Warsaw on November 23 and 24, 2019, is the annual British Universities Exhibition - Study UK. This will be followed by the Going Global 2019 international conference, held on May 13-15, 2019 in Berlin. The call for speaker proposals is now open and closes on Wednesday 10 October, 2018.
More about projects:
Up-to-date information on opportunities related to studying in the UK is available at: https://study-uk.britishcouncil.org/planning/eu-students
Contacts for media:
British Council
Robert Pajączkowski
Head of Marketing and Communication
+48 502 710 053
robert.pajaczkowski@britishcouncil.pl
Ambasada Brytyjska
Małgorzata Śmierzycka
Head of Communications
+48 696 005 641
malgorzata.smierzycka@fco.gov.uk