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Elisabeth Gohla will be part of a golden generation in a few days.
Shortly before the end of the day she was able to fulfill her dream of studying in the land of venerable colleges.
The 24-year-old has been enrolled at the University of Essex since September to do a Masters in International Relations.
It is the last academic year that young people from Europe can study in the UK without any major barriers.
According to the organization Universities UK, around 150,000 students from the European Union (EU) are currently studying in the country.
“In Great Britain, the care is much more personal than in Germany.
The universities also have a high level of prestige around the world, ”Gohla explains on the phone.
But that will change suddenly from January 1st.
As long as the United Kingdom was a member of the EU, German students paid the same rate as their British fellow students.
Instead of the equivalent of around 10,000 euros, a place at Oxford University will cost up to 40,000 euros from summer 2021 - per academic year.
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In addition, there are around a thousand euros annually for the visa and a fee for using the state health provider, the National Health Service.
On the other hand, the possibility of receiving financial subsidies from the British government, a kind of British BAföG that was previously also available to EU students, has disappeared.
“We are the ones who were lucky.
Going forward, students will have to pay three or four times as much to study in the UK.
Who in Germany can still afford that? ”Asks Alaa Baazaoui.
The 26-year-old is doing her doctorate in biochemistry at Oxford and doing research on flu viruses.
Baazaoui regrets that the British state is making it so much more difficult for young Europeans, and thus also young Britons, to exchange ideas after Brexit.
“It serves neither scientific cooperation nor international understanding.
The high costs are certainly not a welcome sign.
This also makes it difficult for a university like Oxford, which has been trying to be more open and less elitist for some time, ”says the native Rhinelander.
But it is not just the cost that will make young academics notice the difference between an island and a continent.
At the beginning of the year, a new British immigration law came into effect, which no longer had anything to do with the idea of great European freedom of movement, thanks to which EU citizens can in principle settle in any member state.
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Elisabeth Gohla is already feeling the consequences.
Because of the corona pandemic, all courses are taking place online.
The young woman is now likely to do her master's degree not in the south-east of England, but from her Bavarian home.
Which is why she threatens to lose a privilege.
Because the native Austrian cannot set foot on British territory for the time being because of the lockdown conditions, she also missed the chance of a residence permit.
On December 31st, the transitional period will expire, during which the EU rules continued to apply to the United Kingdom.
Only those who are demonstrably in the country before this deadline can apply for “settled status”.
This is the first step towards an unrestricted right to stay.
From January 1, 2021, completely different rules apply.
Then the kingdom is finally a third country for EU citizens, with all the consequences, especially for freedom of movement.
They will then no longer enjoy treatment that is almost on par with the British.
If you want to stay in the country for a longer period of time and are not just visiting Great Britain for a holiday or business trip, you have to apply for a visa.
In future, applicants from all over the world will be given a permanent right to stay using a point system.
“After my studies I would like to work in Germany or Austria anyway.
But if I wanted a job in England, the current situation would of course be fatal, ”says Gohla.
Some students therefore fly in briefly these days to meet the banal requirement of being physically present on British territory, reports Wiebke Rüterjans from the “Settled” organization, which volunteers to explain the consequences of Brexit.
According to the authorities, simple evidence such as a train ticket or a boarding card is actually sufficient to then apply for the status.
According to the UK Home Office, more than four million EU citizens living in the UK have already made this application.
However, there is also a deadline for this.
Anyone who has not registered by June 30, 2021 will no longer have legal residence status in the Kingdom.