Redefining a Post-Brexit EU-UK Partnership in Research and Higher Education. College of Europe Policy Brief #6.18, April 2018 (original) (raw)

The complexity of the intricate relationships linking European Union (EU) member states as well as the EU institutions and their member states appears to have been misunderstood in the United Kingdom (UK) at the time of the June 2016 referendum. If information is indeed power, its current unavailability is a concern, given that the UK government's plans to remain firmly embedded within the European Research Area (ERA) or the Erasmus Plus programme are largely unknown to the UK's 162 higher education institutions (HEIs) in receipt of public funding (2016-17). In what can be described as a game of high politics between the EU and the UK government, the fate of research and higher education collaboration will be sealed by high-level intergovernmental agreements decided behind closed doors.