The need to reach an EU Citizens Rights deal is imperative to UK universities, with 125,000 EU students studying in UK unis each year. Similarly, 15,000 UK students study in universities across the EU.
The ridiculous thing is that such a deal was within the grasp of the Prime Minister before she caved in to the pressure of the DUP - a minority party, as they all are, from Northern Ireland.
But we need to go further than the deal on the rights of existing EU citizens to ensure the future of our universities and research institutes. We need a guarantee that there will be no block on the movement of knowledge that ensures UK Univeristies can recruit then best and the brightest and that there is the opportunities for European institutions to continue to welcome UK Univerisities into EU sponsored partnership programmes.
That’s the outcome I’ll be campaigning for in 2018.