09 October 2018 
Karel Thomas, Executive Director
Last autumn, UCEA submitted a response to a call for evidence by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) who were commissioned by the Home Secretary to assess the impact on the UK labour market of “Brexit” and how the UK's immigration system should work in the new era of the UK’s history. The MAC published its final report on European Economic Area (EEA) workers in the UK labour market a few weeks ago and UCEA has now published its response. Finance colleagues may feel this is on the fringes of their interests, but this may be something that should be considered as central to institutions’ financial success, given that EEA staff comprise 17% of all academic staff in UK HEIs, including 11% of clinical academic doctors and 15% of other clinical staff and 6% of professional services staff. That is before we consider the workforce composition of companies supplying construction and maintenance services to universities and the ongoing need to recruit people with skills we do not currently have [enough of] in the UK. Quite worrying should be that with many capital projects still in progress and some yet to start, a CITB survey found that less than a third of construction companies has taken action as Brexit approaches and only 8% of surveyed employers who have started making Brexit contingency plans said they will increase training. Whilst Procurement Managers, Estates Directors and HR Directors will be doing their best to make sure that university projects do not suffer and that Finance Directors are not left holding cash that should have been spent, we face an uncertain future. It would be interesting to hear from members about their preparations and contingency plans at the forthcoming regional meetings, so if you have not booked yet, there is still time.
