Yay - UK has agreed a deal with the EU to rejoin Erasmus+

I was on holiday once in Florance and I met a young American guy who was on the Erasmus program. He was studying at a small town called Fiesola which is near Florence. I do hope they are able to restate our participation. Studying or teaching in another country is an amazing experience and adds a powerful flavour to the CV.

I did think of applying but put that aside when the uni awarded me a studentship to finish my Masters and begin a Ph.D. After my doctorate I went on an exchange based at Uni of Nevada which is just outside Las Vegas. That was an amazing glitzy year and led to some excellent contacts in my field.

Homestead62

Can someone please explain to me how Erasmus works and what the benefits will be to the UK as a whole? Before someone jumps down my throat, I've never been to university and am curious about the scheme and the benefits it will bring.

Anything you read about Erasmus is only true if it works for you. Neither my DD, who studied abroad nor my niece who studying abroad benefited from the Erasmus Scheme.

Modern language teaching has gone down the pan in the UK. You don't even need to visit the country to get a degree in the language, especially if you are doing a combined honours. So the teacher teaching French, German etc at GCSE might never have studied in that country.
Added to that, pupils don't actually have to take a language at all at GSCE, that's how little foreign languages are thought of now.
Yet all the world wants to come and learn English!

If more investment went into modern language teaching, and it became less acceptable for English speakers to not have another language it would be easier for the arrangement to be more reciprocal. There is nothing political about it, and no 'deal'. UK students have the same rights as EU ones to apply, but far fewer do for the reasons I mentioned.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Hmm.

EU STUDENTS owe Britain more than £5bn in unpaid loans, official figures show.

The total outstanding amount, lent to those studying at UK universities, has increased from just £0.7bn in 2013-14 to £5.8bn in 2024-25, according to data from the Student Loans Company.

Access to student loans for new EU students, without settled or pre-settled status, ended after Brexit.

But the disclosure has sparked fears that the UK taxpayer could have to give up even more cash on top of the £8.75bn bill the UK faces for rejoining the EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme.

Hmmm, yes. There are also far more European students coming here than ours going out and we are paying for them! Bad deal.

The youngest millennials will be 30 this year - it’s Gen Y and Gen Z who have been affected by Covid and who lost the Erasmus opportunities.

It’s not about the money, although resident students bring a lot to the economies of university towns. Contacts, broadening of horizons, reciprocal cultural understandings all contribute to possibilities for future collaboration on all sorts of issues as they get older. UK universities lost a fortune in research grants after Brexit, and are declining in reputation on the world stage as a result- this could go some way to helping patch things up. It won’t restore what was lost, but every little helps, I suppose.

Some info.

The UK said it had negotiated a fee of £570m for the first year, a 30% discount based on what the government says it would have paid otherwise. Ministers say the discount recognises that the UK historically received a disproportionate share of visits from EU participants. Research by Universities UK in 2020 estimated that the UK gained a net £243m boost to its economy from Erasmus after deducting costs.

Great news.
Any move to reinforce ties with Europe and give young people more opportunities as well as bringing the brightest and best minds to collaborate on university research programmes is a win win as far as I’m concerned.
And let’s not forget forging stronger ties with our European neighbours in these unpredictable days when we can no longer rely upon the US to be an ally, has got to be a good thing.

Hmm.

EU STUDENTS owe Britain more than £5bn in unpaid loans, official figures show.

The total outstanding amount, lent to those studying at UK universities, has increased from just £0.7bn in 2013-14 to £5.8bn in 2024-25, according to data from the Student Loans Company.

Access to student loans for new EU students, without settled or pre-settled status, ended after Brexit.

But the disclosure has sparked fears that the UK taxpayer could have to give up even more cash on top of the £8.75bn bill the UK faces for rejoining the EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme.

Excellent news indeed. I hope that it might open a dialogue with Norway, which has a good programme agreement with the EU regarding international study for its citizens, but, of course, this ended for the UK after Brexit.

There is a block of young people (the millennials) who have had a very raw deal in their education.

First the Erasmus rug was pulled from under their feet then they had the disruption of covid.

Not a good start.

Many Erasmus students are building up those important international networks so important to international standard research. Notice when new breakthroughs are made in medecine and other sciencest how international the teams duing the research are and how spread across several research centres in several countires.

Admin, organisation, mapping of learning outcomes from visitor to host degree, marking, teaching, university facilities such as libraries and labs, accommodation, heating, security, cleaners - the list goes on. Some things are less clear cut, such as costs of buying new buildings, huge salaries for senior managers etc, but much of the fees goes on day to day expenses.

People so often assume that these things are free, and count the number of taught hours and divide that into the fees. It’s much more complex than that.

My son benefited from this when he was at university, so I am in favour. However, I don't understand why it costs so much. What exactly are we paying for?

Thank you for the explanation of the Erasmus Scheme.

Wyllow3

Not quite with you, but genuinely interested, can you explain more?

I think it was last month that Bardella asked the EU parliament to reconsider the expansion of the Erasmus programme given the out of control migration situation. Basically he has a bee in his bonnet about the financial cost to the country.
Seeing as he is now best buddies with Farage, after meeting with him in London last week. I hope they have no intention of undermining things.
The Erasmus scheme restructuring comes in in 2027, just as Macron has to leave office in the spring and an election is to be held.

I'm delighted it is coming back. In my subject, we hosted more visitors than we had students going out, as too few Brits can speak another language, but it was a great opportunity to meet and mix with people from other areas and learn about the similarities and differences between the countries. Students made friends they'd never have met, too - I think that is a good thing for the future.

Incidentally, the scheme is open to all students, not just the best and brightest, which is another reason I liked it. The 'best and brightest' already have that advantage, and will get other rewards for being gifted - it's great when more 'average' students get opportunities too, IMO.

I believe we need "Excellence" Visgir1 for the well being of our R and D in industries and in such matters as the development of drugs and other new technology. We do need "Best and Brightest" for our country's sake.

Without this we are likely to be, in terms of our future, seriously disadvantaged while other countries co-operate for the best of all.

Erasmus has many benefits, nice to have but at the price tag of 10% of the total university budget seems very excessive.
The overall money it's going to cost would be better spent on general funding for universities and education. That money should benefit all equally, rather than a small minority.

Homestead62

Can someone please explain to me how Erasmus works and what the benefits will be to the UK as a whole? Before someone jumps down my throat, I've never been to university and am curious about the scheme and the benefits it will bring.

Scientific and medical research is a planet-wide coordinated effort now. Our universities and our bright students benefit from learning to work with academics in other countries and are able to pursue career opportunities that might not otherwise have been available.
Sadly, numbers of our universities lost funding and places on international projects because of Brexit.
Schemes like Erasmus also broaden minds and stop us thinking in small-island ways, we have a lot to learn from others. Learning another language is a life long benefit.
I wouldn't trust AI without stopping and doing my own research, the report above seems strangely biased to me.

Fantastic, I have a DGD who wants to do MFL at uni who will be able to participate. I also have an Italian nephew who is studying chemistry and can study abroad as part of his course, he has good English and didn’t think he’d be able to study at a U.K. university due to the cost. He was considering the Netherlands, hopefully he may now be able to opt for the U.K.

AI Overview
One prominent Brexit-supporting MP, Suella Braverman, has been publicly identified as a personal beneficiary of the Erasmus scheme.
Suella Braverman, a staunch Eurosceptic who served as the chair of the European Research Group (ERG) from 2017 to 2018, participated in the Erasmus program as a student. She studied for a Master's in European and Comparative Law at Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris, which was facilitated by the scheme, after completing her undergraduate degree at Queens' College, Cambridge.
Despite her personal experience with the program's benefits, Braverman consistently voted for Brexit and supported the UK government's decision to withdraw from the Erasmus+ scheme after the UK's departure from the EU, a decision that led to the program being replaced by the domestic Turing Scheme. The government at the time, under Prime Minister Boris Johnson, stated the program was too expensive and the UK "loses out" financially due to more EU students coming to the UK than British students going to Europe.
The Erasmus student programme is about to become another ...
17 Dec 2020 — Nevertheless, every financial commitment has opportunity cost” William D Taylor says: December 18, 2020 at 9:38 pm. I h...

The London School of Economics and Political Science

UK students lose Erasmus membership in Brexit deal
23 Dec 2020 — The omission of Erasmus from the UK-EU deal ends a scheme that had offered student exchanges as well as school links.

Hooray we need to get back to working with Europe biggest mistake ever that blxxdy referendum
🥳

Not quite with you, but genuinely interested, can you explain more?

It's a yay from me too!
A welcome return to the Erasmus scheme which offers so many opportunities.

However, I don't think we can be totally optimistic for the long-term until the Farage/Bardella partnership, which has other ideas, gets crushed. There might be something waiting in the wings to scupper it, but I hope not.