UK should rejoin Erasmus+, says Lords report

The UK should consider rejoining the Erasmus+ student mobility scheme in light of improved relations with the European Union, a House of Lords report has recommended.

A week before Britain left the EU in December 2020, it was announced it would end its participation in the bloc’s flagship study-abroad scheme, which was described as “extremely expensive” by Boris Johnson, prime minister at the time. From September 2021, the Turing Scheme has funded study placements for UK students, both in Europe and globally.

According to a report published by the Lords’ European Affairs Committee on 29 April, that scheme has enjoyed some success, with 38,000 students studying abroad in 2022-23, mostly on short-term placements. That was roughly double the number who travelled overseas on the last year of the Erasmus+ scheme, although this tended to fund an entire academic year of study.

But the lack of incoming students from Europe was a flaw of the Turing Scheme, explains the committee, which backs former Conservative leader Lord Hague’s belief that a “two-way flow [of students] is extremely important”. Other witnesses told the committee that Erasmus+ had been a useful “showcase” for UK universities that encouraged students to return for postgraduate study.

The report says ministers should consider adding a reciprocal element to the Turing Scheme that would allow European students to come to UK universities, similar to Wales’ Taith initiative; or the UK should simply seek to rejoin “aspects of Erasmus+”, pending negotiations with Brussels, it adds.

Speaking to Times Higher Education, committee chair Lord Kinnoull said the UK should take advantage of “dramatically improved relations” with the EU to “enact a series of small things” to improve mobility between Britain and Europe.

“UK universities could certainly benefit from an injection of outstanding students from Europe,” said Lord Kinnoull, who urged Westminster to “look at other nations in the UK to see how the Turing Scheme could become more complete”.

“In Wales, the Taith scheme is looking to bring in 10,000 students from Europe,” he added.

The report, which has 72 recommendations, also urges the UK and the EU to conclude negotiations over Britain’s association to the €100 billion (£90 billion) Horizon Europe research initiative “as soon as possible”, calling this a “win-win” for both parties.

The current impasse is believed to concern the cost of the UK’s membership, although the EU has agreed to waive the bill for the UK’s two years’ of non-participation caused by disagreements over the Northern Ireland border.

“My feeling is that there must be a landing zone between the two parties that can be agreed,” Lord Kinnoull told THE. The disputed sum was likely to be “pretty small bananas” in the context of a “couple of Horizon funding rounds”, he added.

“Both sides should be thinking about this in terms of two or three Horizon cycles – is that sum of money [likely to be won by British universities] larger or smaller than what is being disputed? Maybe we should split the difference and get on with it – I hope that is the kind of thinking that will prevail,” he added.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com