Educational Exchanges

(asked on 13th May 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to promote international programmes of exchange in higher education after the UK leaves the EU.


Answered by
Chris Skidmore Portrait
Chris Skidmore
This question was answered on 16th May 2019

The government has made clear that it values international exchange and collaboration in education and training as part of our vision for a global Britain. We are committed to the UK remaining open to the world, and becoming even more global and internationalist in outlook. That is why the Department for Education supports a number of outward mobility and exchange programmes which broaden access to international opportunities, schemes such as Fulbright scholarships and Generation UK China.

Irrespective of the outcome of Article 50 negotiations, the UK and European countries should continue to give young people and students the chance to benefit from each other’s world-leading universities following our exit from the European Union. In addition, the UK is an Erasmus+ programme country and the Withdrawal Agreement ensures that UK entities' and students’ rights to participate in the current programme will remain unaffected for the remainder of the current EU budget cycle. Following ratification of the Agreement, UK-based organisations and people will be able to bid for funding, participate in and lead consortia, for the duration of the current programmes.

In addition to this, the UK is open to exploring participation in the Erasmus+ successor scheme for 2021-27, which is currently being discussed in the EU. We will continue to participate in discussions on the draft regulation while we remain an EU Member State and are considering options for future participation in the next Erasmus+ programme. However, a decision on UK participation in the next programme is ultimately a matter for wider negotiations about our future relationship with the EU.

As is the duty of a responsible government, we are also preparing for a range of potential outcomes and this includes promoting international mobility through a domestic alternative to Erasmus+.

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