The Quality of Oxford University: What do Brexit’s Tuition Rules Mean for Europe and the UK
By John Savvides (10/18/26) — London, UK
Growing up in a Cypriot-American family, I was used to hearing about my cousins attending universities in the UK for their prestige and affordability. My aunts and uncles were always so proud of my cousins, telling me that when I grew up I would be able to attend a good university just like them! However, since 2020, I rarely hear news of my cousins going to the UK for school, and that's all for one reason: the high tuition fees following Brexit.
Before Brexit, a student from any European country paid domestic tuition to attend school in the UK. That was it—no applications, no loopholes, just affordable tuition.
Using Oxford as an example, we can see how drastically the number of EU students attending the university has changed. For the 2027/28 academic year, domestic students will pay £10,050 a year, while overseas students will pay between £39,620 and £66,580, without having UK government loans to cover it (Oxford Admissions). This means that any EU student coming into the UK to study can face charges of up to six times the previous price, making tuition too heavy a burden on most families.
Unsurprisingly, the rate of EU students attending Oxford has decreased dramatically. We can see this in a report by Oxford University, which states: “The number of EU students enrolling in a new course in British universities fell sharply after Brexit, declining by 57% between 2020/21 and 2023/24” (Oxford Migration Observatory). However, what I really wanted to know was how this would affect the UK and the EU in the long run.
With this question in mind, I approached Christoforos Mannaris, a former Oxford University researcher who holds dual EU/UK citizenship. I began by asking for his opinion on the change in tuition following Brexit, and he proposed that “In the long run it will matter because Oxford will miss out on many talented and promising European students and [the students] will have to look elsewhere because of the high tuition”. From Mannaris's perspective, UK universities may face an opportunity cost due to a lack of diversity in their student body.
I was particularly interested in the long-term sustainability of European education as a whole, so I asked him if Europe would be worse off with locally-taught citizens. Surprisingly, he disagreed with this idea, stating that “No, the impact will not be so much in Europe. I think the European universities will grasp the opportunities to improve further and in due time they will surpass UK universities in many many areas.” I didn’t expect this answer, but intuitively it made sense. If the EU suddenly has a large influx of university applications, they’ll want their schools to be as viable as possible to the new wave of students, encouraging them to strive for more rigorous academics and increase prestige.
Having learned that the sustainability of European education wasn’t at risk, I asked him for his final thoughts on what might happen to the UK as it accepts fewer European students: “My colleague at Oxford described it as a tanker turn effect. It’s a very slow and long turn; that’s what Brexit will do: it will come back to bite them in the arse.” A tanker turn effect is a metaphor for the UK education system. When an oil tanker takes a slow turn, it can end up splashing all the oil onto one side, tipping itself over. In this case, Mannaris believes that there will be a slow but steady tipping over in the UK education system, predicting a decline in university education without diverse minds.
While Brexit may harm European citizens looking for quality education in the long run, it paves the way for more European innovation, and perhaps a revamping of the whole UK and EU university scene!
