UCL department tries to sway students to remain in EU

SELCS sent an email to students asking them to vote In.


It’s come to light that in February, UCL’s SELCS department (School of European Languages, Culture & Society) sent an email to its students persuading them to vote to stay, by expressing their views on the Brexit referendum and the benefits for remaining in.

The email insisted that: “The prospect of leaving the EU presents a grave threat to SELCS as well as all UK Universities.”

The importance of the Erasmus scheme was also highlighted by the department, suggesting that: “Our degree programmes, with their compulsory year abroad, depend largely on the thriving Erasmus and Erasmus Plus schemes.

“As many of you know, these Erasmus schemes offer guaranteed places for you to study at European Universities and enable you to get secure, paid work placements with the addition of Erasmus mobility grants.”

The email was sent in February

The email rounded off by persuading students to: “Please bear our concerns and those of Universities in general in mind when considering how to vote in the referendum.”

The email has raised concerns as to whether UCL and universities in general, have a right to express political stances to students in an attempt to persuade them to vote a certain way.

However, as a response the UCL Press Office has stated that:

“The comments made by UCL SELCS set out how the department stands to lose significantly through Brexit. We’re not aware of anyone being reprimanded over these comments and there are no policies against individual departments pointing out how they would be effected by the EU referendum.”

In a compulsory event held for second year students at the end of February- Caroline Horslen the Year Abroad & Affiliate Officer for undergraduates, opened by trying to ensure that students voted to stay in the EU so that their year abroad plans wouldn’t face complications.

Michael Arthur has expressed a personal desire to remain in the EU

The UCL Provost has also published his standpoint on the matter in early March on the UCL news site, writing: “I believe that British exit would be bad for UCL and for higher education, research and innovation across Europe. This is my personal view, but it is also one that I see shared across our sector, both by individuals and organisations.”

With the referendum being held on the 23rd of June, universities nationwide have expressed the preference for staying in the EU- a campaign called Universities for Europe has been launched in which UCL has joined.