British students will be able to study at European universities as part of the Erasmus exchange programme as the UK’s rapprochement with the European Union gathers pace under Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government.
The UK will rejoin the study abroad programme from 2027, allowing more than 100,000 Britons to benefit in the first year, the Cabinet Office said on Wednesday in a statement. In exchange, students from EU countries will be able to study in British universities, on placements lasting as long as a year.
The move — which will cost the UK £570 million (€649 million) in the first year — is part of Labour’s wider effort to forge closer links with the bloc Britain left in January 2020 after more than three years of at times acrimonious negotiations. The Cabinet Office said Britain had also agreed to start talks on returning to the EU’s internal electricity market, as well as setting deadlines to agree a food and drink trade deal and carbon markets linkage next year, which would remove carbon-related charges on power exports.
“Today’s agreements prove that our new partnership with the EU is working,” the UK’s EU relations minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds said. Erasmus “is about more than just travel: it’s about future skills, academic success, and giving the next generation access to the best possible opportunities.”
Turing Scheme to continue, for now
When negotiating Brexit, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative administration decided against staying in Erasmus, saying Britain contributed more than it received from the programme, and the country’s participation in the programme ended in December 2020. The Cabinet Office said the negotiated UK contribution comes at a 30% discount to default terms and that future payments “will need to be agreed in the future and be based on a fair and balanced contribution.”
The Tories replaced Erasmus with a worldwide programme called the Turing Scheme, which for now remains in place, although Labour cut funding for it earlier this year. A government spokesperson refused to comment on the future of the Turing Scheme, stating that Erasmus is far broader as it enables work placements as well as study.
Wednesday’s Erasmus announcement follows an agreement that the UK would join the programme at a summit in May. The deal set out the first steps for EU-UK alignment, including British access to Europe’s €150 billion ($180 billion) defence fund, reduced border checks on goods and free movement for young people. In parliament on Wednesday, Starmer touted the deal as the “next lever” his government was ready to pull.
Some areas of Starmer’s negotiations with Brussels have struggled, however, with the UK announcing in November that talks to join the Security Action for Europe, or SAFE, defence fund had failed. Joining the program would have enabled UK firms to participate fully in projects, beyond the non-EU limit. Reports suggested that the membership fee was the stickling point.