The government announced this week that it has signed an agreement with the EU to rejoin the bloc’s Erasmus+ scheme, which will provide grants to students to study or train in Europe.
The government expects over 100,000 people to benefit in 2027-8, but any UK Erasmus membership beyond this is subject to additional negotiation.
The 2027-8 academic year will be used as a trial period where the government will evaluate if the scheme is to be considered good value for money.
Universities will apply for grant funding from the British Council, and then distribute it to students on qualifying years or semesters in Europe, or on traineeships with NGOs or small businesses. Placements can last between two and 12 months.
The University has said if its applications are successful, students will be able to apply for funding from Spring 2027.
Professor Jennie Shaw, Vice-Provost (Education & Student Experience) said, “Erasmus+ will provide opportunities for UCL students to gain valuable international study experiences in Europe. The government’s focus on opening up Erasmus+ opportunities for all students, including those from disadvantaged groups, is a welcome direction.”
UCL’s School of European Languages, Culture and Society and the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies will especially benefit from this news, with both departments having several European language courses with mandatory years abroad: their over 2000 students will now be able to worry less about funding their time abroad.
Many other programmes include time abroad, so the scheme is expected to help thousands of UCL students as well as the many exchange students who come to UCL from Europe – while UCL’s publicly available data does not show how many exchange students are from Erasmus+ member countries, there were 813 affiliates registered at UCL in Term 1 of this year.
Even if the UK remains in Erasmus beyond 2028, future governments may decide to leave. While the Liberal Democrats support the Labour government’s move, the Conservatives have attacked the £570mn bill attached to the UK rejoining the scheme.
Labour have said that the cost includes a 30% discount of the normal fee based on GDP, but the shadow education secretary, Laura Trott, called the charge ‘nuts’.
In the UK’s last year in Erasmus+, the scheme received €144m (£126m) of EU funding for 55,700 people to take part in Erasmus projects, 28,344 of whom were university students.
The new higher bill reflects the widening of the scheme to include schools and youth sports teams.
The decision to leave Erasmus was taken as part of Brexit negotiations under Boris Johnson’s Conservative government. In its place, the Turing Scheme was set up.
While this helped more students than when the UK was previously part of Erasmus+ and had a wider variety of destinations, it has faced criticism due to funding delays and not adequately helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The future of the Turing Scheme beyond 2026-7 has not been confirmed.