Thanks to Brexit, UK Universities Officially Suck a Bit More Than They Did Last Year

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

The results are in: the UK's universities officially suck a little bit more than they did last year. University think-tank QS has just dropped its yearly World University Rankings, which show a considerable overall drop in the UK's collective placement. Out of the 48 universities in the top 400, 38 have slipped down the table, including Imperial, King's, LSE, Bristol and Warwick.

Only 12 percent of featured British universities have made advances, including Manchester and Edinburgh, compared to 47 percent of universities from the US. And presumably to the chagrin of a boatload of alumni, Cambridge in particular has suffered, being knocked out of the top three for the first time since the survey was created.

As with every single thing of note to have happened in the past six months, it looks like Brexit had something to do with the shifts. Despite the survey being carried out before the referendum took place, anxiety about its results has apparently played a part. Ben Sowter, head of research at QS, said that "uncertainty over research funding, immigration rules and the ability to hire and retain the top young talent from around the world seems to be damaging the reputation of the UK's higher education sector".

So given that 10 percent of the overall score is apportioned to levels of international students and faculty, it's unsurprising that the UK hasn't scored too highly. While the British government has promised to guarantee EU funding levels for research for projects already underway, as well as confirming the legitimacy of the loans of all students starting this year, there has been no comment on what will happen in 2017.

Universities UK president Dame Goodfellow has warned of an imminent crash in international applications if the government doesn't act quickly to make EU students feel less like they might get deported in the middle of fresher's week.

READ: Our series of articles 'Is University Still Worth It?'