London
—
Britain announced that it will rejoin the European Union’s Erasmus student exchange program in 2027, six years after it ditched the scheme during fractious Brexit negotiations.
The government said rejoining the scheme was a “huge win” for young Britons, and will ensure that “everyone, from every background, has the opportunity to study and train abroad.”
Erasmus allows students to spend a year at foreign universities while paying the same fees as their domestic peers. The agreement will also allow Prime Minister Keir Starmer to show the British public that his push to improve relations with the EU is beginning to bear fruit.
But this fruit has come at a price. Britain’s contribution for the 2027/28 academic year will be £570 million ($760 million). Although this fee represents a 30% discount to the default terms under the current trade deal with the EU, it is around twice what Britain paid to take part in Erasmus while it was still a member of the bloc.
The costly reintroduction of a pre-Brexit perk could raise uncomfortable questions about how and whether Britain is benefiting from its decision to leave the EU, which was taken in 2016 and implemented in 2020. Talk of Brexit remains something of a taboo in British politics – at least on the right – but recent polls show that public opinion towards the EU is softening, with only a fraction of Britons able to point to any benefits from leaving the bloc.
The groundwork for Wednesday’s announcement was laid during a summit between British and EU leaders in May, in which both sides agreed to “deepen our people-to-people ties, particularly for the younger generation.” Since coming to power last year, Starmer has stressed the need for Britain to forge closer ties with the EU, following years of antagonism during the Brexit negotiations.
The Erasmus program was canceled in 2020 by Boris Johnson, then the Conservative prime minister, who claimed it did not offer value for money. But Chatham House, a London-based think tank, wrote in a 2021 report that: “Far from acting as a drain on the economy, Erasmus has facilitated the movement of well-funded students into the UK for limited periods, during which they have provided a lucrative customer base for the higher education, services and hospitality sectors.”
It estimated that Britain made a net profit of £243 million ($324 million) per year from its participation in Erasmus. As well as financial benefits, a European Commission report in 2019 found that more than 1 million “Erasmus babies” – children whose parents met while one or both was on an Erasmus exchange program – have been born since the program started in the 1980s.
Irene Tracey, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Oxford, said the program also bolstered Britain’s standing in the world in subtler ways.
“Even a brief visit to the UK – people love their time here,” Tracey told the BBC. “Many of these people are going to go on and become leaders of the public and private sector – or leaders of their countries – and that’s a good thing. We service that swirl of global talent. That’s soft power, and soft diplomacy.”
Nick Thomas-Symonds, Britain’s minister for EU relations, said Wednesday’s agreement is “about more than just travel: it’s about future skills, academic success, and giving the next generation access to the best possible opportunities.”
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission who herself studied in Britain, said reviving the Erasmus program in Britain would open the door “to new shared experiences and lasting friendships” between British and European students.