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Brexit planning: An update from Peter Taylor, Chief Operating Officer

TLDRoffon

We know that many of you will have been watching the political events of the past week closely. Unfortunately, it seems we are still none the wiser on the form or even the timing of the UK's departure from the European Union.

The government's planned withdrawal agreement for exiting the EU has once again been rejected by Parliament. MPs have since voted to seek an extension to the March 29 deadline for leaving the European Union. 

However, until this is agreed by the European Council, the UK is still due to leave the EU on March 29 – with or without a deal - and there is therefore no substantive change to the information and guidance we have previously circulated to students and staff. We urge you to familiarise yourself with this information.

The government appears likely to schedule another vote on its withdrawal agreement next week, whilst the European Council will meet to discuss the possibility of an extension to the withdrawal deadline. We therefore hope that there will be greater clarity on the direction of travel by the end of next week, which will therefore inform our planning.

We wish to reiterate the University of Greenwich's commitment to internationalism and to our European and International students and staff. 

We appreciate the ongoing uncertainty may cause anxiety, please do refer to the information and guidance available on the portal.  

Students: If you have any concerns or queries, please speak to the Students' Union advice service in the first instance, who can be contacted at suadvice@gre.ac.uk or advice@gkunions.co.uk - please note while they can provide wellbeing advice, they are unable to provide immigration advice.

Staff: If you have any concerns or queries regarding the effect on you of the UK's departure from the European Union, we recommend you speak to your senior manager or our HR team in the first instance.

Please be assured that we are doing our best as an organisation to prepare and mitigate for all possible outcomes and will continue to provide regular updates as more information becomes available.

Peter Taylor
Chief Operating Officer