Could the UK rejoin Erasmus+ student mobility scheme?

Hopes are rising in Brussels and London that the UK could return to the Erasmus+ mobility programme, after encouraging comments by a number of EU diplomats and the election of a more EU-friendly Labour government.

Yet a cash-strapped UK could still take some convincing to return to the fold, despite hopes in the EU that Erasmus+ could be part of a broader reconciliation across the English Channel.

Last week, Germany’s ambassador to the UK suggested that the scheme should form part of a much bigger security and cooperation deal. Mobility is “very important, not only to Germany but to all 27,” member states, Miguel Berger told Politico.

This follows a drip drip of comments, since Labour’s victory on July 4, from MEPs, anonymous Commission officials, and commentators suggesting that the EU would like to see the UK return.

Meanwhile in the UK, the new prime minister Kier Starmer convened European leaders in mid-July to “reset” their relationship after years of damaging squabbles over Brexit. Last week, several Lords, who sit in the UK parliament’s upper house, urged the new government to rejoin Erasmus+, including one from Starmer’s own party.

With Horizon Europe association agreed last year, a return to Erasmus+ would be the next logical step to patch up the research and education relationship between the EU and UK.

“If there is a will to conclude further agreements and bring that relationship closer, then this would seem to be an obvious way to do that,” said Paul James Cardwell, an expert on Erasmus+ based at King’s College London.

However, the UK government remains poker faced for now. Asked earlier this month whether he discussed student and youth mobility during July’s summit, Starmer didn’t explicitly answer, saying only that there was a “clearly an appetite to work in a different and better way with the UK”.

The UK’s Department for Education did not respond on the record when asked if there was interest in rejoining Erasmus+. However, the new foreign secretary, David Lammy, wrote in early July that “we must do more to champion the ties between our people and our culture” including student exchanges, although he did not explicitly namecheck Erasmus+.

The Commission too is being coy. “As regards, the possibility of the UK re-joining Erasmus+, it is too early to speculate on this,” said a Commission official. We have not yet heard whether the new government of the United Kingdom would be interested in joining Erasmus+.”

Hurdles remain

The problem is that although the UK has a more pro-European government, similar cost and visa hurdles to re-joining remain. The incoming Labour government has repeatedly played up how strapped it is for cash.  

The UK’s decision to leave Erasmus+ in December 2020 was made by the combative conservative government of Boris Johnson, which cited value for money concerns.

“We would have been paying in nearly £2 billion more than we got back,” the government later claimed, justifying the decision to other parliamentarians.

Instead, the UK launched the Turing Scheme, a mobility programme that encompasses the entire world – although it does not generally include money for inbound students, making exchanges more difficult.

London has never publicly revealed its detailed financial workings over Erasmus+. But even in UK universities, although they would like to rejoin, some acknowledge that concerns over value for money are reasonable. In other words, the decision to quit Erasmus+ wasn’t just pro-Brexit isolationist swagger by Boris Johnson. 

“Cost is likely to be a major barrier” to the UK rejoining, said Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK.

Weak engagement

One of the problems is that when the UK was part of Erasmus+, its students used the scheme far less than peers from other countries.

In 2018 when the UK was still in, almost 10,000 students from the UK were on placements, compared to more than 34,000 from Spain, 33,000 from Germany, nearly 31,000 from Italy, and more than 30,000 from France, according to research from the UK parliament.

“The UK generally hasn't used Erasmus to the maximum,” said Cardwell. One reason is the UK’s weakness at foreign languages. Language exchanges are still a core part of Erasmus+, meaning the UK typically has fewer students to send, he said.

Another problem is that English and Welsh universities normally offer three-year undergraduate degrees, and have to extend them to four in order to fit in an exchange year, he added. “It can be done, and I did it in previous institutions and got students out there,” he said. “But it can take some time.”

And with free movement now over, the need for visas might also complicate the UK’s return. In the UK, Erasmus+ is still perceived largely as an exchange programme for undergraduates. But in reality, it’s evolved into a much bigger scheme, with all kinds of new programmes for work, sport and apprenticeship exchanges, designed to tackle youth unemployment.

Student visas for classic Erasmus+ undergraduate exchanges might be relatively simple to organise, but visas to allow trainee workers to come and go between the UK and EU could prove more tricky. 

“It's going to be very, very difficult,” said Cardwell. “You're going to have probably […] more sectoral agreements which would be very complicated to do.”

It’s also unclear if and how a deal on Erasmus+ would fit into a broader deal on youth mobility. The European Commission proposed discussions on a new youth mobility deal in April, but it was rejected by the then Conservative government, and by Labour in opposition. But this doesn’t mean the current UK government isn’t open to hearing fresh proposals.

Cherry picking

One option to make joining more palatable for the UK could be to allow it to just join the student mobility part of Erasmus+, bringing down the cost for London and simplifying visa hassles.

“The political choice, and barrier to overcome, is: can part of Erasmus be carved out?” said Cardwell.

But this might smack of the very “cherry picking” that so annoyed the EU during Brexit negotiations. One member state science counsellor predicted at least one country would object.

Other options to alleviate the UK’s bill might a contribution discount, to reflect the fact that the UK doesn’t send that many students abroad. Or a kind of pay-as-you-go model – used for Horizon Europe association – where the UK would get a rebate if its contributions to Erasmus+ significantly outstripped its receipts.

However, Cardwell said it was doubtful that the EU would create a “bespoke” deal just for the UK.

A Commission official also slapped down the idea. “The Erasmus+ regulation does not provide for any third country’s association to certain strands of the programme only,” they said.

Still, “if there's political will to do so on both sides, and the new [UK] government coming in is an opportunity to do that […] this should be a barrier to be able to overcome,” said Cardwell.