College City Lit will fight any post-Brexit cap on international staff or students, says head

The principal of City Lit says the run-up to Brexit has been “incredibly stressful” for foreign staff and students.

Mark Malcomson used an event celebrating the adult education college’s 100th anniversary to praise the contribution of EU citizens and warn he was ready to “fight” any post-Brexit caps on migration.

“We don’t count the number of international teachers we have and we don’t count the number of international students we have,” he said. “I hope we never will have to — and I will be fighting if we ever have to.”

In a message to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Mr Malcomson said: “Make sure our EU colleagues are supported and are treated with the respect they rightly deserve. They have contributed to making Londoners and British people better.”

He said the UK’s looming exit from the EU had made it harder to recruit lecturers. The college, in Covent Garden, runs more than 30 language courses and employs native speakers as tutors.

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Migration to the UK from EU falls to lowest level in 10 years

Mr Malcomson said the “narrative has changed” on Brexit, with a hard exit sparking greater concern. About 900,000 EU citizens so far have applied for settled status, out of an estimated 3.6 million living in the UK. The deadline for applications is December 2020.

“Some of our teachers have been here for 30 or 40 years,” he said. “They have paid pensions. They have never applied for nationality or settled status — they have never needed to. Suddenly everything is up for grabs.

“Those EU citizens provide such a lifeblood to who we are and what we do. Over 250 of our teachers, we think, are EU nationals… I think we are making some headway but it’s been incredibly stressful for that group for the last three years.”

Mayor Sadiq Khan heard the concerns of students and lecturers during a visit to mark the centenary.

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Read more Migration to the UK from EU falls to lowest level in 10 years