University of Cambridge will reimburse all EU, EEA and Swiss nationals for the application costs of settlement in a post-Brexit UK, Stephen Toope has announced this morning.

The University will cover the costs for settled or pre-settled status applications for all employees and their dependents hailing from EEA countries who join the University before 29th March 2019, the date the UK is scheduled to leave the EU.

The UK government has proposed that settled and pre-settled statuses be two residence routes for European nationals post-Brexit.

Applications for settlement and pre-settlement statuses are expected to cost £65 for those over the age of 16 and £32.50 for those under the age of 16. EU, EEA, and Swiss nationals will be able to apply through an electronic application process, expected to open to the general public early next year.

Staff who have already applied for Permanent Residence Cards since June 2016 will be able to apply to the University for reimbursement for the £65 cost of their applications.

In his annual address in Senate House today, Toope remarked: “inconceivably, at this late stage we do not yet understand the full implications of Brexit. Which does not mean that we cannot prepare for it".

Toope added that the University “greatly value[s], and heavily rel[ies] on, our European colleagues”, and that it wishes to “reaffirm” employees’ “confidence in the choice of Cambridge” as their place of work and residence.

Professor Eilís Ferran, pro-vice chancellor for institutional and international relations, is expected to say later today in an all-staff email that Cambridge is “concerned” that difficulties for European staff to obtain immigration statuses post-Brexit “would make it harder for talented people to come and work here”.

According to Ferran, the University is “calling on the government to engage with us and others to develop a light-touch immigration system that supports the UK’s research base and innovation capabilities”.

The University’s announcement comes amid concerns of the potential impact of Brexit on the higher education sector – Varsity reported earlier this year that 12.7% of Cambridge schools’ external research income was funded by EU Commission grants between July 2016 and July 2017.