British universities’ financial problems make reciprocal student access challenging, says UUK International director

Proposals for a UK-EU youth mobility scheme could be “difficult for the government to agree to” given the financial state of British universities, according to the director of Universities UK International.

Jamie Arrowsmith, head of the international wing of the vice-chancellors’ group, told Research Professional News there are “very real issues that I think government and the EU need to look at”, if talks on the proposal go ahead.

The European Commission first floated the idea of a scheme to “create a right for young people to travel from the EU to the UK and vice-versa more easily, and for a longer period of time”, in April this year.

The original proposal was for citizens aged between 18 to 30 to stay for up to four years in a destination country, with permission for UK citizens limited to a single EU member state. But the idea was quickly shot down by both the Conservatives and Labour ahead of the UK general election, with both saying they would not reintroduce any form of freedom of movement after Brexit.

However, according to recent reports, the UK government is said to be considering a modified version of the scheme that would allow more European students to come to Britain but would avoid accusations that it is a return to freedom of movement.

European officials are also reported to be willing to shorten the length of stay to three years but are insisting that EU students at UK universities would pay the same fees as British counterparts. 

Financial concerns

The issue could be on the table at an upcoming joint summit between the UK and EU, expected in early 2025.

But Arrowsmith said “any proposal that offered or sought unrestricted access to full undergraduate programmes at UK universities, on the same terms as domestic students, would likely be quite difficult for the government to agree to—in the near-term at least”.

“At a time when tuition fees don’t cover the full cost of teaching—or where there are student number controls and no fees, as is the case in Scotland—it’s difficult to see how this could work without exacerbating concerns over financial sustainability or imposing a significant cost on the government,” Arrowsmith said.

Britain’s higher education sector is in the midst of a financial crisis as the numbers of international students, whose high fees cross-subsidise both domestic students and university research, are falling.

‘No plans for scheme’

Arrowsmith said that Universities UK International welcomes the UK government and the EU indicating that they want to rebuild the relationship, and that a key part of that has to be around mobility and exchange.

“But there is a difference between targeted, strategic programmes that support student mobility and exchange, like Erasmus and the Turing scheme, and a more general relaxation of visa and immigration requirements that might include reciprocal access to higher education systems and each other’s universities,” he said.

Earlier this year, the government said it had no plans to rejoin the EU’s Erasmus+ student exchange scheme, which the UK left after Brexit.

The Cabinet Office did not deny the accuracy of the reports that UK officials are considering a modified version of the EU’s initial proposal and said the government would not give a running commentary.

But a spokesperson said the government’s position is that “there are no plans for a youth mobility scheme and we will not return to freedom of movement”.