Universities Scotland has given evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee’s inquiry into Scotland’s Place in Europe . Our submission emphasises the value that staff and students from the EU add to the quality of teaching, research and the student experience. We stress the urgent need for clarity on the immigration status for existing EU staff and students already studying and working in Scotland after the UK exits the EU. We are also concerned to ensure that the UK negotiations continued access to EU research programmes so that Scottish research can benefit from the collaborations and the funding that these programmes facilitate. Our preference is for a bespoke arrangement rather than to follow one of the established, associated-status models that exists for Norway and Switzerland.

Download our full submission here.

Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea, Principal of the University of Edinburgh and Convener of our Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee gave oral evidence to the Committee’s session in Glasgow on 24 October which you can view below (from 1:04:56):