Skilled EU workers, academics and students will be key to driving the post-Brexit engineering economy and government must act quickly to guarantee their status says David Wright, chair of Coventry University’s National Transport Design Centre.
Like most of us, I didn’t expect Theresa May to announce a snap election in June. Similarly, I was one of the many who didn’t expect the Brexit vote to go the way it did. To misquote Monty Python, “No-one expected this Brexit situation!” But we are where we are. And engineers can either moan about the unexpected outcome, or take a more pragmatic approach to the impending divorce – exploring the emerging competitive landscape to see how it can be turned to our favour.
This is certainly the case where industrial design in concerned. Given the inevitable change in our relationship with Europe, a top transport design institution like the NTDC (which runs postgraduate courses for the automotive, aviation, rail and marine sectors) needs to consider its unique position as a ‘talent gateway’ into the UK’s vibrant engineering sector.
While engineering employers are understandably lobbying the government’s Brexit team for some kind of exemption on skilled workers entering the UK from EU countries, universities are faced with an even more complex challenge.
Unlike manufacturers that rely on highly skilled engineers to maintain productivity, universities inhabit a unique position in the economy as both employers of skilled people and, crucially, generators of creativity and innovation. It’s the latter point that is so important right now.
Without the more creative, innovative minds able to develop new designs for tomorrow’s cars, trains, planes and ships, our global competitive position will be dramatically reduced.
Think about it. Here we stand on the edge of one of the most important trade bloc negotiations in our country’s history. Juxtapose this with the nascent Industrial Strategy about to be published and the need for a viable, intellectual ‘feedstock’ is obvious. This intangible capital is what will drive the UK’s industrial design capability for future decades, creating a vital foundation on which engineering excellence will be delivered.
Without the more creative, innovative minds able to develop new designs for tomorrow’s cars, trains, planes and ships, our global competitive position will be dramatically reduced. That is why we need to ensure our educational institutions continue to attract and retain aspiring design engineers from across the globe.
Far from being uncertain about the future of our engineering design capital, the UK is in a strong position – one we need to protect and grow at all costs. Certainly, initial signs from MPs are encouraging in this regard, given the fact that the education select committee wants urgent steps taken to end uncertainty over the future status of EU academics.
Engineering students’ right to work and stay in the UK should be given unilaterally before the end of this year
This sensible approach also extends to the treatment of overseas students, who I believe should be taken out of migration figures. Indeed, committee chairman Neil Carmichael hits the nail on the head when he says that Brexit risks damaging universities’ international competitiveness.
Clearly, engineering students’ right to work and stay in the UK should be given unilaterally before the end of this year, assuming there is no reciprocal deal with other EU countries.
Given the recent recommendations by MPs on this matter, furrowed brows and worried expressions among both engineering lecturers and students in the UK should become far less widespread as the government position in this area solidifies.
While UK plc’s intellectual design capital is difficult to measure in financial terms, its strategic value cannot be underestimated. As many of our Asian competitors will admit, it’s the UK’s unique ability to design trains, planes, automobiles and ships that set the benchmark for quality and performance in their respective markets.
We must never forget that fact – especially as we negotiate the choppy waters of the Brexit channel.
David Wright heads up Coventry’s National Transport Design Centre (NTDC). Due to open in May 2017, the National Transport Design Centre has been established to help fill a shortfall in creative skills that are essential to transport design.
There would be no skill shortage, if salaries matched other employment sectors!
Great to read an article that makes some simple suggestions for the post-Brexit economy and is not whinging-on about the threats. A lot is to be done and no one doubts that, but we are where we are and need to deal with it properly. Unfortunately the dealing will be done by lawyers and PPE graduates rather than the numerate.
Mr Wright makes a good case about the rights of students and professionals being ensured irrespective of the negotiations. Didn’t the house of lords recommend that recently?
Obviously when negotiating no one wants to give away anything too early or negotiate point-by-point; but sometimes taking a stand on a point can weaken the other side, and it would seem that rights of people could fall into that set.
I’m not fully convinced that the collaborative approach enforced by the EU was efficient as it often linked second rate universities with top performers as a pressure to obtain funds and thus increased the cost of R&D.
I would firstly like to make a small change to the last sentence to the article above – “As many of our Asian competitors will admit IT WAS the UK’s unique ability to design trains, planes, automobiles and ships that set the benchmark for quality and performance in their respective markets.” unfortunately over the last 50 years the ability to design, develop and manufacture has been severely and seriously reduced in many of these and other industries.
It is sad to say that along with this loss has been the loss of UK students wishing to study sciences and engineering at school and in further education, so much so that we have to rely on foreign students and engineers to fill the gap. Surely if, as a country, we wish to recover some or all of this lost ground we need incentives for school children to look seriously at engineering as a potential career instead of softer options that add little value to the economy (e.g. law, media studies and I am sure you could add many more). Perhaps a concerted effort in schools to explain the importance of engineering in everybody’s day to day life and a financial incentive at university of charging low or even zero tuition fees for UK students may help to address this situation.
JB: “EU inefficiency ” :: exemplified & evermore so since mid90s fp4 when outputs as properly peered papers or patents cost €100k, 10x DTI Linkies in turn 10x auldanglo PhDs with only alphas allowed as students & supervisors. Don’t recall any straightforward summaries since that wrapup event allowed easy estimation but then overall audits have also been absent!
A lot of companies seem to be sweating over the skills shortage as workers retire. This is not a result of any vote, these skills have been underinvested in for years. We allowed this as a country to get to a crisis point and have left it to the last minute to try and resolve with short term solutions. Short term gains are doing nothing for our future. The best way to rebalance and ensure we do not suffer in future is to invest in todays youngsters and encourage engineering subjects in schools.