Academics could be cut off from international partnerships that generate world-leading research if the UK were to leave the European Union, the University of Cambridge vice-chancellor has warned.

Arguing for a ¡°sensible debate about the UK¡¯s membership of the EU¡±, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz said research at universities across Europe would be severely damaged if the UK voted to leave the union.

UK universities would lose hundreds of millions of pounds a year in EU research funding, and a UK exit would also destroy links with world-class institutions made possible by pan-European funding.

¡°The real loss is that we would not be able to collaborate in the way we do today,¡± said Sir Leszek in a speech at a reception for UK vice-chancellors in Brussels on 13 April.

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¡°The UK needs Europe and Europe needs the UK,¡± he added, saying that the EU managed to ¡°bring together academics to work on today¡¯s big global challenges¡± and that ¡°together we are much stronger than we are separately¡±.

The exclusion of Switzerland¡¯s universities from EU research projects ¨C after it breached freedom of labour rules by voting to impose immigration quotas on Croatian workers ¨C showed the potential dangers to science, Sir Leszek warned. ¡°Do we want to be outside the EU, where the Swiss [found] themselves after a referendum they held?¡± he said.

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Universities are also often at the heart of high-tech centres that generate thousands of good jobs, he argued, which could be at risk if the UK was sidelined.

In a Universities UK blog published on 13 April, Sir Leszek also said he was disappointed to see how parties ¡°across the political spectrum¡± were discussing immigration. As the son of Polish ¨¦migr¨¦s incarcerated in Siberia during the Second World War who later came to the UK, Sir Leszek said he owed much to ¡°the UK¡¯s historically open and positive attitude to immigrants¡±.

¡°The UK¡¯s future, as a member of the EU, cannot be decided by an intemperate, ill-defined and ill-informed debate on immigration. For universities, EU funding alone is too important to be sacrificed for short-term electoral success,¡± he said.

jack.grove@tesglobal.com