Erasmus scheme to return for UK students
The United Kingdom will restart the Erasmus education program from 2027, six years after announcing that it would no longer be part of a deal to leave the EUropean Union (EU). Britons will be able to spend a year at European universities as part of their UK degree programs without having to pay extra tuition, and vice versa for European students. In 2021, the United Kingdom had replaced Erasmus with its own Turing scheme, which funds similar placements around the world. According to the government, the UK will pay £570 million to join an expanded Erasmus+ scheme in 2027, which the government claims represented a 30% discount under the current arrangement. The deal, according to Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds, demonstrates that the government's "new partnership with the EU is working.
EU relations minister David Cameron said. In December 2020, the Erasmus programme, named after the Dutch Renaissance theologian, was scrapped in the United Kingdom, after the government announced its post-Brexit trade agreement with the EU. It encourages students to study abroad at partner universities and higher education institutions by giving grants to help with living expenses. Participating students often pay fees to their home institutions, with additional costs covered by the European Union and funded by taxpayers' funds. After Brexit, Britain may have remained a member of Erasmus, but then prime minister Boris Johnson said the scheme did not have value for money. Before Brexit, the UK argued that more than twice as many EU students came to the UK as British students travelled to EUrope at a net cost to the British taxpayer. Overall, the scheme received €144 million (£126 million) in 2020, the last year in which the UK participated in Erasmus. Last year, the UK sent 9,900 students and trainees to other countries as part of the scheme, while 16,100 came the other way. In comparison, the Turing scheme, which was named after British mathematician and codebreaker Alan Turing, received £105 million in the last academic year. This year, there were 43,200 placements, with 24,000 being in higher education, 12,100 in further education, and 7,000 in schools. Ministers who introduced the Turing scheme in 2021 said it was designed to assist more people from poverty and provide greater financial assistance for travel costs than the Erasmus scheme did. And after taking into account membership fees, support universities helped universities financially, Erasmus boosted the UK economy, according to supporters. In May, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer restarted talks, saying that a youth mobility initiative could also be part of a new deal with the EU.This is about more than just travel; it's about future skills, academic achievement, and giving the next generation access to the best of the best possible opportunities,
Alex Stanley, a student at the National Union of Students (NUS), said it was fantastic
that another generation of students would be able to be part of the Erasmus program, adding that it would be a big win for the student movement.
Students have been campaigning to return Erasmus from the day we left,
moment of real possibility and a concrete step toward repairing the disastrous Conservative Brexit deal.he said. Liberal Democrat universities spokesman Ian Sollom said it was a
