UK grant rules restricting access to talented EU research students

And yet, Oxford’s particle physics department has not awarded her a research council grant for her studies. Instead, the grant has gone to a British student, as has been the case for the last four years, give or take the few times when British students have turned down places at Oxford.

Meanwhile, Doglioni has spent months trying to secure funds from charities and other sources to see her through her PhD - months that the 24-year-old Italian could have been spending on her research into why we are made of matter.

This year - her first - Rotary International has funded her fees and the majority of her living expenses. Next year, she has secured an Oxford University scholarship to cover her costs. But she has no idea yet how she is going to fund her third year. “You have to prepare yourself for a graceful fall,” she says.

It’s a situation Huffman deeply regrets, but can do little about. Research councils - non-departmental governmental bodies that fund thousands of PhDs every year - stipulate that only UK PhD students can receive a grant that covers their living expenses as well as their tuition fees. PhD students from the EU, like Doglioni, are only entitled to a grant that covers their tuition fees.

Vincenzo Raimo, director of the international office of the University of Nottingham, says: “If the UK is prioritising research, particularly in maths and science, which we claim to be doing, we ought to be getting the best people irrespective of where they come from. It would also make us much more competitive.A pool of excellent students from the EU may be going elsewhere because they cannot afford to live and study for a PhD in the UK.