The United Kingdom will rejoin the Erasmus program in January 2027
The United Kingdom is set to rejoin the international student exchange programme Erasmus+ after reaching an agreement with the European Union, according to the British newspaper The Guardian. The agreement is expected to be announced this Wednesday, the paper reports, in a move that forms part of the desire of London and Brussels to strengthen their relations after Brexit. It would begin to apply in January 2027.
The deal would make it easier for students from the EU and the United Kingdom—both in vocational education and at university level—to undertake reciprocal study stays. It would also significantly reduce the tuition fees that students on both sides are currently required to pay.
After Brexit, the cost for young Europeans to study in the United Kingdom has soared. Instead of the €1,900 per academic year paid by British students, those from EU countries are now required to pay up to €43,000. A similar situation occurs in reverse when UK students study on the continent, which, according to British universities, has sharply reduced exchanges.
Scale of the programme
In Spain alone, 153,717 people have benefited from the European exchange programme this year, including secondary school and university students as well as teachers. Most of the funding for this mobility has been provided by the EU, totalling €306.5 million. The Spanish government has contributed €70.5 million, allocated entirely to exchanges in higher education. Across the European Union as a whole, the programme has a budget of €26.2 billion for the 2021–2027 period.
One of the arguments put forward by then Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson when he decided to leave the programme (despite the fact that the UK could have remained in it after Brexit) was that his country paid more than it received. In the 2018–2019 academic year, around 18,000 Britons studied on the continent through the programme, while the UK hosted some 30,000 students from the European Union. The current prime minister, Labour’s Keir Starmer, is instead negotiating the restoration of ties with the EU in various areas, from defence to youth mobility.