IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp18178.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

International student migration: Did Brexit close the door to EU students?

Author

Listed:
  • Clifton-Sprigg, Joanna

    (University of Bath)

  • Homburg, Ines

    (University of Antwerp)

  • Huyghe, Anneleen

    (University of Antwerp)

  • Vujic, Suncica

    (University of Antwerp)

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of the Brexit process on international student migration from the European Union (EU) to the United Kingdom (UK). Using administrative data on higher education students in the UK, we employ a dynamic and a synthetic difference-in-differences estimator to compare EU to non-EU students. We show that the Brexit referendum itself and the introduction of visa requirements did not affect EU student migration. However, the introduction of higher tuition fees led to a large reduction in EU student applications to UK universities and colleges, and, subsequently, a decline in place offers, student acceptances, and enrolments. The effect ranges from 48% to 64%. Our findings suggest that increased tuition fees acted as a deterrent for EU students wanting to study in the UK.

Suggested Citation

  • Clifton-Sprigg, Joanna & Homburg, Ines & Huyghe, Anneleen & Vujic, Suncica, 2025. "International student migration: Did Brexit close the door to EU students?," IZA Discussion Papers 18178, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18178
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp18178.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18178. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.