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Freshers Edition 2018 | Twitter: @brignewspaper | Website: www.brignews.com
MUSIC: Gigs in scotland this semester
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Brexit impact on students revealed in Union report Harry Williamson News Editor
T
he Students’ Union has published its report on the impact of Brexit on international students. The report, titled ‘The Impact of Brexit on the International Student Experience at Stirling’, was authored by Union President Astrid Smallenbroek and former Democracy and Research Coordinator Amy Eberlin. The report describes Brexit’s impact on higher education in Scotland as “unquestionable” and cites a “clear demand for research into the potential impacts of Brexit on the lucrative UK higher education sector since the EU referendum.” A further motivation for the research was the impact of Brexit on university staff and academics, citing a University and College Union (UCU) survey in 2017 which found that 76% of non-EU UK academics are more likely to leave UK universities, and 29% of members knew academics who had already left the UK. The report cites Hobson’s 2016 International Student Survey, which shows that 42.7% of international
students said Brexit had impacted whether they wanted to study in the UK; 82.9% of students said that they were now less likely to come and study at a UK university; and only 17.1% of these students saying that they are more likely to study at a UK university. The study found that the most common reason for students being less likely to study in the UK was the perception that, after Brexit, the UK was a less welcoming country
LIFESTYLE: keep in the loop with stoop
for international students. This report also stated that, because Stirling has such a high international student population (23%), then it was an ideal university to research the impact of Brexit and the EU referendum result on international students. The Union carried out research for the report by sending a ten-question survey to international students in August 2017, it was advertised online, through social media and the Union used flyers. The
survey asked international students whether they felt as if their experience as a student in Scotland had changed following the EU referendum result, and asked these students to discuss ways that the University of Stirling and the Students’ Union could work on the support provided to international students. The Union survey had 159 respondents: 111 of these were from the European Union; 36 were from outside the EU and
European Economic Area (EEA); four were from the EEA; four were from Scotland; and three students did not disclose a location. The Union then carried out focus groups and interviews in spring 2018. Smallenbroek and Eberlin held four focus groups throughout the semester. 17 students took part across the four focus groups and met for half an hour to discuss their student experience regarding Brexit. Seven individual Continued on page 3
POLITICS: women take the lead
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