UK unis fear Erasmus drop post Brexit

Studying with a year abroad might soon be a thing of the past, as Britain edges closer to implementing Brexit. The exchange scheme allowing UK students to spend up to a year in participating universities across the EU, is for the first time in its 30 year-long history facing a “moment of uncertainty”, according to UK director of Erasmus+, Ruth Sinclair-Jones.

For now, those applying for a year abroad should be safe from any changes to the scheme. However, as Sinclair-Jones points out, “in the long term, it’s an unknown situation. We will continue with our plans until 2017 but after that we have to wait”.

Erasmus has been steadily growing in popularity over the years in the UK, with over 15,000 home students applying for a place on the scheme in 2013 alone, a figure which has doubled since 2007. Moreover, universities in the UK are currentlhosting over 27,000 Erasmus students, with fees covered by the EU.

In fact according to the EU’s latest report, UK students receive 4.6% of all KA1 mobility grants, generally awarded for three to 12 months for study and minimum two months for traineeships. This puts UK students in 6th place out of the 33 Erasmus participating countries when it comes to receiving funding from the EU to study abroad.

Union President, Nas, said “Imperial has always been a proud participant of the Erasmus program. Not only do many of our students use the scheme to travel abroad and broaden their horizons, but we also accept a large number of European exchange students every year. Although we don’t think that any changes on the Erasmus scheme will be implemented any time soon, potential exclusion would dramatically impact the opportunities available to the student body at Imperial.”

Along the same lines, in a letter sent out from College shortly after the referendum, and signed by both the College President and Provost, students and staff were told “This uncertainty will probably last for some time” However the pro EU sentiment was strong. ”We continue to be a global European university that values collaboration across borders, and welcomes students and staff from all countries” concluded the statement.