Campaign to ‘save’ Erasmus

A campaign is seeking to ‘save’ Britain’s participation in the EU’s Erasmus university exchange scheme, which may be under threat due to the Brexit vote.

A petition by the UK’s Liberal Democrats has reached 8,800 and they hope to hit 20,000 before Lib Dem MEP Catherine Bearder and a group of UK students present it to the European Parliament’s Culture and Education Committee in mid-November.

The petition seeks reassurance that the EU will seek to protect the UK’s participation when talks go ahead.

As we explain in the September issue of The Connexion newspaper, full participation is limited to EU countries and a handful of others (certain candidates for EU membership or members of the wider EEA).

Institutions in other ‘partner’ countries may take part but only at the initiative of one of the full participants. Also some elements such as work placements are not available to them.

France is the top Erasmus destination for British students and the UK is also very popular with students from France, with thousands heading in each direction every year – in the newspaper we interview the executive producer of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London, who explains how it boosted his career.

However the UK’s continued full participation is expected to be one of the many elements that would be discussed in Brexit negotiations. If the UK seeks curbs on free movement that may be a sticking point - as Switzerland found when its entitlement was suspended after it voted on restrictions.

A Liberal Democrat spokeswoman said Ms Bearder recently asked the European Commission about ways to preserve opportunities for the UK, but was merely told: “The UK will continue to participate in the Erasmus programme up until leaving the EU” – a response which was “far from reassuring”, she said.

This comes as Erasmus released a statement on its website acknowledging the uncertainty and saying “it is not clear at this early stage what the impact of the recent UK vote will be”.

“We must therefore continue the campaign to ensure Erasmus is protected in any future negotiations,” the spokeswoman said.

The Lib Dems are also collecting stories from those who have been on the programme. These can be shared on Twitter with the hashtag #SaveErasmus and supporters can also share an Erasmus quiz on social media.