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Brexit and higher education in Europe: the role of ideas in shaping internationalisation strategies in times of uncertainty

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Abstract

Based on thematic data analysis of reports from a qualitative cross-country study, the article explores the perceptions of Brexit and collaborations with the UK in different EU countries through the lens of discursive institutionalism. We suggest that in the context of uncertainty characteristic of the post-Brexit referendum period, ideas related to economic concerns and strategic repositioning of national higher education systems subsume the values attached to the European dimension of higher education and research policies. The ideal of educational cooperation based on cultural diversity and national varieties is overridden by concerns expressed in terms of economic rationales. These findings corroborate research that argues that collaboration/cooperation has become a pragmatic and instrumental endeavour. In time, and if the current climate of uncertainty persists, this may further reconfigure institutional strategies and lead institutions to focus on problem-solutions rather than the pursuit of the political ends of cooperation.

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Notes

  1. E.g.: http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-12-12-wide-ranging-new-research-partnership-berlin-universities#

  2. For instance, if Brexit is perceived as a willingness on the part of the UK to turn its back on its EU partners, it may encourage the rise of ideas and negative stereotypes that could bear on the course of negotiations (Adler-Nissen et al. 2017).

  3. In this and later papers, Schmidt uses variants such as “cognitive validity” and “normative value”.

  4. https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/where-from. Accessed June 2018.

  5. Data collected from Europa, Erasmus+ report 2016, https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/sites/erasmusplus2/files/annual-report-2016-stat-annex_en.pdf

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers as well as our colleagues Dr Jens Jungblut, University of Oslo; Prof. Simon Marginson, Oxford University; Dr Tim Seidenschnur, University of Kassel; Dr Krystian Szadowski, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań; Prof. Marijk Van der Wende, Utrecht University; and Professor Susan Wright, Aarhus University for their comments and suggestions on a previous version of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, Somerset, BA2 7BA, UK

    Aline Courtois

  2. Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Educativas, Universidade de Porto, R. Alfredo Allen, 4200-135, Porto, Portugal

    Amélia Veiga

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  1. Aline Courtois
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Correspondence to Aline Courtois.

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Courtois, A., Veiga, A. Brexit and higher education in Europe: the role of ideas in shaping internationalisation strategies in times of uncertainty. High Educ 79, 811–827 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00439-8

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