A survey of academics in the UK indicates that the vote there to leave the European Union has prompted many to think about leaving higher education, Nature News reports. The University and College Union commissioned the survey, it adds.
Some 42 percent of lecturers and professors said they were consider leaving academia following the Brexit vote and that percentage jumped to 76 percent for non-UK EU citizens, Nature News says.
The UCU adds that a third of respondents said that they knew of other academics leaving the UK and 44 percent said they knew people who'd lost research funding because of the vote. Ninety percent said they thought Brexit would negatively affect higher education in the UK, it reports.
Nature News also notes that foreign researchers reported feeling less welcome in the UK and thought they might have better opportunities elsewhere. This new "poll is one of the clearest indications of the widespread nature of this feeling in UK academia," it says.
In addition, the survey inquired about various plans to reform higher education in the UK, such as the scheme to fold the nine research councils into one — a move that most researchers said would have a negative impact, according to Nature News.