Erasmus+ Programme: Scotland

(asked on 10th February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding (a) projects and (b) institutions in Scotland have received through Erasmus+ in each year since 2015.


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

The Turing scheme will be backed by £110 million for the 2021-22 academic year, providing funding for similar numbers of UK students to travel abroad as under Erasmus+, which is approximately 20,000 higher education (HE) students, 10,000 further education and vocational training students and 5,000 school pupils, subject to demand.

Widening participation and levelling up is a core aim of the Turing Scheme. That is why we plan the following, to widen access to mobilities for disadvantaged groups with additional grants for living costs and living expenses:

  • When bidding, providers will need to demonstrate how their project will support widening access. The assessment criteria will be heavily weighted towards this criterion.
  • Maintaining parity with Erasmus+ grant rates and existing student finance support, but provide additional financial support for those from disadvantaged backgrounds by reimbursing travel-related costs.
  • We will actively target and promote the scheme in those geographical areas of disadvantage, helping to level up the country.
  • We have reduced the minimum HE duration of outward mobilities from a minimum of one term to 4 weeks.

Adult education mobilities under Erasmus+ were for staff rather than students. In considering which elements of the Erasmus+ programme we would immediately replicate under the Turing Scheme, we prioritised ensuring that as many students, learners and pupils as possible have access to life-changing mobilities to support them in developing the skills that will help them to thrive.

Youth and sport are policy responsibilities of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Erasmus+ Sport is a very small part of the programme, representing only 1.8% of the overall budget. DCMS estimates that UK organisations have, on average, benefited by less than £1.5 million a year from Erasmus+ Sport.

We do not need to create a specific programme to replace Erasmus+ Sport activities. We are already investing significant sums of money in sport programmes that align with Erasmus+ Sport themes and objectives. For example, through Sport England, we are investing more than £1.2 billion between 2016-21 on grassroots sport and physical activity programmes.

The National Agency collect and publish data on projects funded as part of Erasmus+, including for broken down by England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which can be found here: https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/statistics.

The table below shows the value of Erasmus+ projects funded in Scotland from call year 2015 to 2017 (the call year is the year in which applications can be made). This is the latest data available, and it can be found in table 11 at the following link: https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/file/14125/download.

Value of Erasmus+ projects funded in Scotland (in euros)

2015 Call

2016 Call

2017 Call

Total value of projects funded

€14,719,965

€15,617,009

€21,436,222

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