UK universities face EU student exodus due to Brexit

That could deprive the universities of £ 400 million ($518 million) a year in tuition money from the EU students, who currently number over 60,000. On top of that, the universities will be losing 500 million pounds in EU funding annually when Britain leaves the EU.

This year, EU applications to UK schools dropped for the first time in at least five years, by 5 percent. The trend is also a concern for British companies, who heavily recruit EU students from British universities and would face a smaller pool of talent.

Meanwhile, Theresa May is poised to make an unprecedented attempt to fix the parliamentary system, allowing her to grab sweeping powers ahead of Brexit, The Independent can reveal.

A late-night Commons vote to secure the Conservatives the muscle to use so-called "Henry VIII powers" to make new laws – behind the backs of MPs – will be staged next week.

The move has been disguised on the Commons order paper under the innocuous description of "motions relating to House business", but will be a decisive act in the Brexit process.

It will allow the Tories to pack a crucial Commons committee with their own MPs, in defiance of Parliament's rules, in order to carry out the power grab.To win the vote, the Conservatives will need the backing of the Democratic Unionist Party(DUP), under the much-criticised "cash-for-votes" deal that props up Ms May in power.

Opposition parties immediately accused the Prime Minister of a bid to "sideline Parliament and grant ministers unprecedented powers" – despite promises to restore sovereignty to MPs.

"This is an unprecedented power grab by a minority government that lost its moral authority as well as its majority at the general election," Valerie Vaz, Labour's Shadow Commons Leader, told The Independent.

And Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat chief whip, said: "The Tories seem determined to ram through their destructive hard Brexit even though they have no mandate for it."

The bid to seize control of the Committee of Selection comes despite unequivocal advice from parliamentary officials that the Tories must not do so, after losing their Commons majority at the election.

Without the fix, it would be impossible to force through up to 1,000 "corrections" to EU law as intended through the EU (Withdrawal) Bill – the reason for the accusations of a power grab.Among key rights at stake are protections for British workers and consumers, environmental standards and whether powers will be devolved across the UK, or hoarded by ministers.