Early figures from the Russell Group universities reveal a 9% fall in non-British European Union students starting postgraduate research courses in 2017-18, compared with last year – a big concern in universities that rely on European talent, writes Anna Fazackerley for The Guardian.

Overall, 16% of Russell Group PhD students are from the EU, but this rises to 27% for maths, 22% for computer science and 19% for the physical sciences. Michael Arthur, president and provost of University College London (UCL), says: “If I look at the top research teams at UCL, Europeans are over-represented, and many of them first came here as PhDs or post-docs.”

Arthur says he was relieved by the government’s December announcements offering “settled status” for Europeans already in Britain, and the acknowledgement that his researchers can leave the country and work elsewhere for up to five years without losing that status. But many European researchers and students still fear for the future. “I try to reassure academics but it takes time to rebuild trust. There was a long period in which European citizens felt they were being used as bargaining chips. That has eroded confidence.”
Full report on The Guardian site