Brexit as revelatory policy shock: what can we learn about international student mobility from changes in EU student mobility to the UK after Brexit?

The UK’s exit from the European Union in January 2020, following a referendum in 2016, represented a significant potential rupture to EU student mobility to the UK. When the UK was an EU member, EU students were entitled to identical treatment to UK domestic students in higher education, able to finance undergraduate and master's fees through UK student loans (or pay no fees in Scotland) and access doctoral funding. After Brexit, EU students were treated like any other international student and liable for upfront and very high tuition fees. This policy shock has the potential to significantly disrupt full-degree EU student mobility to the UK. Using a comprehensive dataset of all EU full-degree enrolments in UK higher education, 2007–2023, we investigate patterns of incoming EU student mobility to the UK before and after Brexit. We find the sharp disjuncture to have both overall and more particular effects. Looking at how the shock of Brexit plays out differently across sending countries, levels and fields of study and institutional destinations provides interesting revelations about how international student mobility operates.