The Westminster government announcement on Wednesday that the UK would be returning to the EU’s Erasmus scheme may be seen as a manifesto-pledge ticking task. But for Keir Starmer, it also sits in firmly with his “reset” plans with the EU, for which he has received some criticism from Conservative benches. South of the Channel, it is fair to say that the news of the rapprochement has been widely welcomed in both political and higher education circles.

From 2027, a return to the programme, which the UK left in 2020 after post-Brexit talks fell flat, will once again see exchanges made possible backed with funding between UK and participating, mostly EU, partner countries across further and higher education, in training, culture and sport, and will carry a price tag of some £570m.

In a joint statement, the UK government’s EU relations minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds, and his EU counterpart, Maroš Šefčovič, hailed the move as a comeback that offered “significant opportunities […] for individuals […], particularly for those in the younger generation”.

Talking to The Guardian, the chief executive of the Association of Colleges, David Hughes, saw the pledge to return to the scheme as “brilliant news”, adding it would allow students to “[open] their eyes to different cultures and different ways of life”.

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A view that Fanny Chouc, assistant professor at Heriot Watt University’s Languages and Intercultural Studies Department, shared. Speaking to The Herald, Chouc also saw the announcement as “excellent news for UK university students”, highlighting the many interests the “form of modern day Grand Tour with funding” meant: financial support, employability prospects, as well as benefits to the UK economy.

“Languages and intercultural skills are key for trade in any business context”, Chouc said. The lecturer in French also pointed to a 2023 from Forbes which underpinned students employability and income prospects with multilingual and intercultural skills.

“But let’s face it”, she added, “students have been facing financial difficulties as well [as others]. Travelling, living and studying abroad is costly – it has certainly be a deterrent for some students.”

By contrast with Erasmus+, the replacement Turing Scheme for offered funding for outgoing UK students but did not support incoming students reciprocally. Despite the programme’s aim to expand beyond Europee’s borders and target those who would otherwise have financial difficulties, year one analysis saw the scheme come under fire with four-fifths of UK universities complaining about process complexities, and numbers falling short of government targets.

“Bringing back Erasmus+ for our young people, opening the door to new shared experiences and lasting friendships” is how the EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, greeted the news on X.

(Image: PA)

With its return and the Starmer government projecting some 100,000 exchange places for the partnership relaunch in two years, reaction on the continent has been widely positive: the UK had long been a favoured destination for many outgoing European mobility students, not least in France.

Bittersweet, Master’s students at the University of Tours, a city in the Loire valley some 150 miles south-west of Paris, spoke enthusiastically of the opportunities the UK returning to the programme meant for future generations, but regretted having to drop their own mobility projects across the Channel due to cost constraints or agreements being scrapped altogether.

Maxence Lopez, 21, who previously studied linguistics in Montpellier, had hoped to study in the UK because of the “prestigious universities, cultural and job opportunities” a study period there would have provided but “it unfortunately wasn’t meant to be”.

Part of a lost generation of Erasmus students entering the UK, Jeanne Mathevet, 21, a student in journalism, also said it was a great shame she had been unable to study in the UK because “[the destination] ticked a lot of boxes for many students – [it is not] far from France and there is a good choice of universities”.

Much like other further and higher education institutes across the bloc, at the University of Tours, which has some 30,000 students, the return of Erasmus has been met with praise. “We previously had many working partnerships in the UK”, Stéphanie Germon, vice principle for international relations, said, “but the UK exiting the Erasmus programme in 2020 meant having to review each partnership agreement on a case-by-case basis”.

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“We’ll now have to do it all over again”, she added – with laughter, “but it’s for a good cause.” Germon hoped the return of funding and Erasmus+ framework may mean a more streamlined process to overcome administrative hurdles for both students and institutions.

The flagship programme, which in 2027, when the UK is to rejoin the scheme, will celebrate its 40th birthday, was initially a university exchange programme to allow tuition-free study and grants for exchange periods at partner universities around the bloc – it has since expanded into further education, work placements, cultural events and schooling.

Brexit may have led to the programme’s demise, but it was the government of Boris Johnson, despite initially saying Erasmus would be kept, that led to its scrapping.  In 2020, then PM Johnson claimed the UK was “losing out” because of a gap between the number of outgoing UK students versus the number of incoming EU students.

Politically on the continent, the UK’s departure from the scheme was felt hard. With reference to the European parliament’s Culture and Education Commission, the French centrist Renew MEP, Laurence Farreng, special rapporteur for the UK-EU relations on the committee said: “there was nothing positive to report on”.

“We could only highlight the gaps and losses in terms of opportunities” that the departure from the programme meant, she added, “inseparably linked to Brexit”.

Returning from a plenary session at the European parliament as the news of the UK’s Erasmus return broke, Farreng recalled how the 2024 change of government in the UK also accompanied a change in both tact and tone. This had been seen elsewhere with joint support efforts for Ukraine with the Coalition of the Willing signalling a warming of UK-EU relations, she said. On Erasmus, “[it] is no longer considered a programme of irregular migration,” she added. “Its return allows us to solidify our relations for both exchange and culture, but also for our sovereignty and competitiveness.

“Today’s news is incredible… unbelievable in some ways, but true.”

At Westminster, not all political forces have welcomed the project with open arms. In Conservative ranks, the shadow foreign secretary, Priti Patel, criticised the move as a “betrayal” of Brexit, condemning the Labour government of willingly “dragging Britain back under the control of Brussels”.

Absent from the current debate, however, on either side of the Channel, has been comment on a frequent ideological debate: EU cherry-picking – or Europe à la carte: opting in for certain legislative packages and out of others, versus the fixed price set menu of EU membership, often flagged as a cornerstone of the bloc.

But in our out, reset, rapprochement or revival: Erasmus is set to return.

Jamie Smith-Maillet is a freelance reporter and writer based between France and the UK. He is a multi award-winning journalist, including the Refugee Council for Scotland Media Awards 2024 and was highly commended for the 2024 Hugh Cudlipp prize. With a ten-year career in university teaching, Jamie re-trained in journalism at Edinburgh Napier; his areas of expertise are France, European affairs, UK politics, and environmental issues.