Member-only story
Brexit Five Years On: The Broken Promises, the Higher Education Crisis, and a Nation Reconsidering
From sovereignty debates to visa restrictions and staff layoffs, the UK’s divorce from the EU has triggered consequences few anticipated.
- Why UK universities are slashing staff
- How Brexit reshaped student mobility
- The economic reality vs the Brexit vision
- What public opinion reveals in 2025
The 47-year relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union ended in 2020. It was not just a political divorce, but the unravelling of a shared vision built on peace, openness, and cooperation. The EU project was designed to strengthen individual member states, not absorb them. But for many in the UK, that nuance was lost in translation.
From the beginning, the UK’s participation was marked by tension and hesitation. It opted out of the Euro. It stayed out of the Schengen Area. It pushed back against EU-led refugee resettlement plans. And it did all this in the name of sovereignty.
To Brexit supporters, the EU became a symbol of suffocating bureaucracy, unchecked migration, and a loss of control. They believed that leaving would allow Britain to reclaim its borders, write its own rules, and unlock global trade on its own terms.
