THE vice-chancellor of Oxford University has raised fears of an exodus of leading academics following the vote for Britain to quit the European Union.

Overseas institutions are already attempting to poach key figures over concerns that funding from Brussels may not be matched following Brexit, Professor Louise Richardson warned.

Prof Richardson, speaking after Oxford was named the best university in the world, said she was "really quite worried" about the impact the worries about cash would have.

And she said Oxford would not take part in plans by Prime Minister Theresa May for leading institutions to set up feeder schools.

The vice-chancellor said Oxford was "very good" at running a university but had "no experience" of running a school.

Prof Richardson said she was "deeply sympathetic" to improving social mobility through education.

"But the idea of setting up a local feeder school, we are a global institution," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

She added: "What we do best is run a university.

"It would be a distraction from our core mission, yes."

Prof Richardson said future EU students faced a "degree of uncertainty" over their fees and there is a risk of the numbers coming from the bloc declining.

"That would undermine the fabric of the institution."

She called for the status of the 17 per cent of staff who are EU citizens to be guaranteed and raised concerns about whether the £67m a year from the European Research Council that goes to Oxford would be matched.

"The concern is that our academics who are at Oxford might decide to leave if they are concerned that they may not be able to get their research funded in the future," she said.

"There are many universities in the world that would be thrilled to have them and are approaching them and asking them if they would return to their universities instead."

Although discussions are under way about matching it, Prof Richardson said: "I'm not in a position to guarantee that to our academics, I wish I were."

Former Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman Nick Clegg said the loss of academics to overseas rivals would be "another blow to the British people following the EU referendum vote".

He added: "The Government must listen to our own experts who are warning that we will lose vital funding and academic skills to the universities in this country.

“If Theresa May wants to secure a brighter future for young people across the UK she needs to pull her party together and establish a plan that stops our best and brightest from leaving.

"The Liberal Democrats will continue to hold this government to account and not let them get away with misleading the public on such key issues.”