Cambridge’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz has signed a letter saying that Brexit will “undermine the UK’s position as a global leader in science and the arts”.

He was among 103 signatories of a letter published in last week’s Sunday Times as Vice-Chancellors of many of the UK’s universities waded into the debate over the UK’s future relationship with Europe. The letter contends that “Brexit will cost universities valuable education alliances”, and echoes many of the arguments that Cambridge for Europe Students are putting forward. In it, university leaders say that membership of the EU means British universities “are better able to collaborate with partners across Europe to carry out cutting-edge research, from medical and healthcare advances to new materials, products and services.”

They also argue that EU membership makes the UK “a more attractive destination for global talent” and that a British withdrawal from the EU would “mean cutting [UK universities] off from established networks.” The letter allies universities with ministers whose portfolios encompass higher education in the upcoming fight for the UK to remain inside the EU.

Universities minister Jo Johnson and Business Secretary Sajid Javid will both be campaigning for the country to retain its membership.

The plea was also co-signed by Dame Julia Goodfellow, President of Universities UK, who are leading the pro-EU Universities for Europe campaign, who calculate that students from other EU nations are worth £2.27 billion to the UK economy and support 19,000 British jobs.

The EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme is also invoked by the Universities for Europe campaign, who claim that “students who did an Erasmus placement have been shown to be 50 per cent less likely to experience long-term unemployment.”

They also stress the EU’s importance for academic research, calculating that 15 per cent of academic staff at British universities are from other EU nations and “research with international collaborators has nearly 50 per cent more impact than research done at a national level.” Borysiewicz has cautioned against leaving the EU in the past. At an event at Downing College in 2015, the Vice-Chancellor summarised his stance on the issue, saying “I’d rather we stay in the boat, trying to shape and to lead research policy in Europe, than to stay on the side-lines picking up scraps.”

The EU Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme, which provides funding for research and innovation, was cited as part of a framework that enables institutions to tackle “global problems”. According to Borysiewicz, 17 per cent of the university’s research income in the year prior to the event at Downing College – a sum of £68 million – had come from Horizon 2020.

He has also previously stressed the collaboration that the EU facilitates, giving the example of the InnoLife Knowledge and Innovation Community, a €2.1 billion project that focuses on the impact of ageing populations and which includes 144 companies, research institutions, and universities including Cambridge. Borysiewicz claims that the scale of that project is “exactly what is needed if we are to overcome society’s grand challenges. Put simply, we cannot access the talent, develop the infrastructure or provide the funding at a national level.”

Elsewhere on Monday, students campaigning for the UK to remain a member of the European Union launched Cambridge for Europe Students, billed by founding member Davide Martino as “the student movement supporting the local IN campaign. I was particularly happy to see such a diverse crowd, in terms of age, geographical provenance within and without the UK, gender, ethnicity,” he went on, saying it was “reassuring” that they didn’t just appeal to the “older and more predominantly male demographics” that he claims tends to be the case for anti-EU campaigns.

The event in King’s College Bar came after David Cameron’s announcement that Britain will vote on whether or not it will continue be a member of the EU in a referendum on 23rd June. Expounding on the campaign’s arguments, Martino said that “we, as students, benefit from the EU every day. About 12 per cent of uni research funding comes directly from the EU, with additional money being poured into Jean Monnet Chairs, Erasmus Exchange Programs and the like.” He also extolled the EU’s freedom of movement provisions, which allow Cambridge “to attract the very best brains around” and its role in facilitating “academic cooperation across boundaries.”

The launch of the campaign also opens up the prospect of an ongoing public debate among students on both sides of the referendum issue, Cambridge for Europe Students saying they are already organising public debates against the Eurosceptic student movement in Cambridge. In a statement to Varsity, students campaigning under the banner of the Cambridge Brexit Campaign have already accused the Remain campaign of presenting an “overarching false narrative” and said they “look forward to engaging with them in a debate.”

The campaign say they want “to present a diverse but united Eurosceptic voice” and have hosted talks by Kelvin Hopkins and Douglas Carswell, MPs from the Labour Party and UKIP respectively.

They went on to lay out their argument for Brexit, saying: “As the world’s fifth largest economy, speakers of the world’s language, and key NATO member with extensive diplomatic links all over the world, home to world-class universities and international cities, Britain is easily capable of surviving outside of the overbearingly bureaucratic, aggressively expansionist and fundamentally undemocratic European Union.