British universities are being invited to open an overseas campus in Paris after the UK leaves the European Union to enable them continued access to EU funding and participation in continent-wide research projects.Oxford University, which was named by the Daily Telegraph on Monday as being in talks over relocating some academics, students and research projects to the French capital, issued a statement later in the day denying the claim.A spokesman told the Oxford Mail, ”The university has received several constructive and helpful proposals from European colleagues since the Brexit vote. We are not, however, pursuing the model of a campus overseas.”

Informal talks with several UK universities

Nevertheless, informal talks have been held with several other UK universities, including Cambridge and Warwick, as part of an active campaign to lure British jobs to Paris, which is also embroiled in a charm offensive in competition with other European cities – including Frankfurt, Dublin and Amsterdam – to attract financial sector firms from London after Brexit.The denial that Oxford was involved in talks about a Paris campus followed a Times story on Friday saying that French officials were offering a number of UK universities the chance to open a campus on the site of a development at the University of Paris-Seine on the banks of the Oise river to the north of Paris.

Free land

“Part of the site will be reserved for a British university to set up facilities there,” The Times reported. “The land would be free, although the university would have to meet the cost of building laboratories and lecture theatres.”The report said that British universities had been given until 14 July – Bastille Day – to book a place at the new, £350 million campus.Jean-Michel Blanquer, a former director-general of the French ministry of education and now managing director of the prestigious Essec Business School, which is part of the University of Paris-Seine, confirmed that discussions between several universities and the French government were taking place.

Research fears post-Brexit

He said British universities were worried about the impact of Brexit on their research and its funding. “We want to transform those worries into opportunities,” he said.“We want to say to British universities: ‘It can be a win–win game for you’, to have high-quality institutions from the UK working in our territory, interacting together in terms of research and collaboration.”  Although the UK government has said it will attempt to strike a Brexit deal that will enable British universities to continue to participate in EU research projects, such as the Horizon 2020 programme, which has a budget of 80 billion euros, Mr Blanquer maintained that, in the medium term, they would inevitably be squeezed out.He said that a campus in Paris would not only enable UK academics to continue to receive EU funding, but would help Britain retain its global reputation of excellence.The Paris initiative comes on the heels of warnings from academics about the impact of leaving the EU on the UK’s universities. Last month, university leaders told MPs that a hard Brexit would be the “biggest disaster” higher education had experienced in years, leading to a brain drain and making UK universities “extremely uncompetitive”.

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A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said, “The UK is home to some of the world’s best universities and research institutions, and we intend to secure the best possible outcome for the UK’s research base as we exit the EU.” He said the department had already taken preemptive measures by “committing to underwrite Horizon 2020 grants bid for prior to the UK’s departure from the EU and put science and research at the heart of our Industrial Strategy with an extra £2 billion investment per year”. He added that the department also hoped to continue collaboration with European partners on “major science, research and technology initiatives”.    For related news and features, visit our Brexit section.Access hundreds of global services and suppliers in our Online Directory  Get access to our free Global Mobility Toolkit

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