News Britain prepares global alternative to EU’s Erasmus scheme
The British government is moving ahead with developing a global student exchange programme as an alternative to the EU’s Erasmus+ scheme.
That’s raising concerns the UK will walk away from the hugely popular European programme from January − a decision that British universities warn would be detrimental to their Erasmus scheme.
A spokesperson confirmed the UK government is “preparing a wide range of options for future exchange programmes, including a domestic alternative to Erasmus” as it considers how to promote the country’s education connections after Brexit.
With negotiations between London and Brussels over the Erasmus+ scheme currently blocked, UK universities minister Michelle Donelan told an online event on Wednesday that it was “prudent” to prepare an alternative.
A British-led scheme, she said, would also give the UK “an opportunity to be more international” since it would extend beyond universities in Europe. That follows suggestions that remaining a member of the EU programme after Brexit doesn’t fit with government’s Global Britain ambitions.
With the UK set to drop out of all EU programmes at the end of the year, negotiations for Britain to participate in Erasmus+ beyond December are not going brilliantly.
Although Donelan stressed the UK is “still very much open to participate” in Erasmus+ from 2021, her words have not reassured the British university sector, which fears the UK is taking strides away from the EU programmes.
Vivienne Stern, director of Universities UK International, a lobby group that represents British universities around the world, warned that government “is increasingly moving” toward a domestic alternative even if officials maintain the idea is still plan B.
“A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes to develop it. This is one of the reasons why I’m so nervous about the Erasmus+ discussions, that there has always been a risk that plan B becomes plan A,” she said.
Stern warned the British option could be far less reaching, at least initially. Universities UK International has estimated that leaving the European exchange programme could cost Britain up to £243m a year because of the economic value of international students and deprive young people of valuable work experience.
Erasmus+ would also be weakened without the involvement of British universities: Around 32,000 European students go to the UK every year on an EU grant.
With the UK set to drop out of all EU programmes at the end of the year, negotiations for Britain to participate in Erasmus+ beyond December are not going brilliantly.
Donelan in March said the British government was “open to participation in elements of Erasmus+ on a time-limited basis, provided that the terms are in the UK’s interests”.
London wants to participate in the mobility part, by far the biggest element, but not in the socalled cooperation actions, which fund leaders of universities across Europe to come together to discuss areas of common interest, such as diversity.
But there’s little appetite in Brussels for what is viewed as a plea for special treatment.
Thomas Jorgensen, senior policy coordinator at the European University Association, said partial association to Erasmus+ is not a model foreseen in the programme’s rules and said the reasons for the UK’s request is “a mystery”.
“You would have to change the European legal structure and invent something just for Britain and that is something that the EU has been very reluctant to do. What they want is a unicorn,” he said.
Jo Johnson, a former UK universities minister and brother of the prime minister, this week outlined the case for a global scheme to replace participation in Erasmus+, arguing: “In its post-Brexit vision for Global Britain, simply continuing as a member of Erasmus is unlikely to appeal to this government.”
The UK should enhance its relevance through mobility schemes “not just to its closest 33 neighbours but also to the growing powers and developing nations of the world, from India and China to Nigeria and Brazil” he wrote in a report for King’s College London. “There is little reason to ignore the experiences and knowledge these countries offer to UK students in an exclusive relationship with its closer European neighbours.”
Jorgensen said it came as a surprise for many on the Continent that such a small but successful programme had become such a thorny topic and said there is nothing stopping the UK setting up a global programme in addition to remaining in the European scheme.
“The door is open, there’s no need to choose between Erasmus+ and a national mobility programme. Nobody expects Germany to choose between Erasmus and the DAAD [the German Academic Exchange Service],” he said.
Not everything is looking rosy for a domestic scheme. Although there seems to be consensus in the British higher education sector for the scheme to be run by the British Council, which already acts as the national agency for Erasmus+, question marks remain over the budget for a new programme.
Unlike Erasmus+, in which students from all over Europe are funded centrally by the European Commission using allocations from the EU budget, the British government would only fund its own students.
That means the UK would have to strike bilateral deals with other governments interested in funding their own students to go on an exchange to British universities. That work has not yet started, according to Stern.
Some of the programme’s cost could come from the UK’s international aid budget, Johnson proposed, but he admitted that will not be sufficient. There is precedent in using aid money to fund research projects linking scholars from Britain and developing nations, but government might struggle to justify using development money to support Brits abroad.
The economic crisis caused by the Coronavirus could also limit the size of the UK’s scheme, Stern said, urging the Treasury to reassure universities that it remains “willing to fund something of the ambition and the scale that the Department for Education is considering”.