Erasmus+ Programme

(asked on 13th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to (a) replace opportunities for students from the EU to study and train in the UK and (b) extend those opportunities to other countries after the UK’s withdrawal from the Erasmus+ programme.


Answered by
Michelle Donelan Portrait
Michelle Donelan
Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
This question was answered on 22nd January 2021

Under the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated with the EU, the UK will continue to participate fully in the 2014-2020 Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes. This means that the projects successfully bid for during the current programmes will continue to receive EU funding for the full duration of the project, including those where funding runs beyond 2020 and the end of the transition period.

The government has decided that it is not in the UK's interests to seek continuing participation in the next Erasmus+ programme. Instead, the UK is introducing a new international educational exchange scheme that has a genuinely global reach. Under the Turing scheme, UK universities, colleges and schools will be able to bid for funding to enable their students to travel abroad for study and work placements starting in September 2021 – for any of their students, regardless of nationality.

UK institutions are already speaking to their European counterparts to ensure they maintain and build upon their strong relationships. The government will support this engagement while also working to directly promote the Turing scheme overseas through government-to-government engagement.

The UK is a world-leading destination for study and research, with four universities in the world’s top 10, and 18 in the top 100. The UK is currently second only to the USA as a destination for international higher education students with approximately 486,000 students from abroad. We have considerable appeal as a destination and partner in international mobilities and exchanges, not just within the EU but across the world. Through our planned update to the International Education Strategy, and measures such as the new Graduate Route, we intend to build on this global reputation.

We will soon be launching the website and announcing the bidding process for mobilities to start in September 2021.

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