Return of Erasmus student exchange scheme ‘won’t save cash-strapped universities’ ...Middle East

The UK rejoining the Erasmus student exchange scheme will not save financially struggling universities, The i Paper has been told.

Insiders said the programme would at best have a “marginal” impact on the cash-flow of British universities – despite the Government spending more than half a billion pounds to secure the UK’s return.

It has led some people in the sector to question whether the deal offers value for money.

The UK is set to rejoin Erasmus from 2027, six years after Boris Johnson’s Conservative government pulled out of the scheme in the wake of Brexit.

British students will be able to spend a year at European universities without paying extra fees, while European students are able to come to the UK under the same terms.

The Government is paying £570m to be part of Erasmus in 2027, which ministers say is a 30 per cent discount on the standard rate other countries pay.

UK universities have welcomed the return to Erasmus as “fantastic news” which will “offer life changing opportunities for thousands of students” and play a “pivotal role in rebuilding” international partnerships which were fractured by Brexit.

However, the programme is unlikely to transform the prospects of financially struggling higher education institutions.

Universities are already in a fragile financial situation, with modelling by the higher education regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), suggesting that nearly three-quarters of providers could be in deficit in 2025/26.

One senior source at a UK university told The i Paper that Erasmus was “good for students but will make almost no difference to finances”.

They added: “We haven’t even discussed the finances angle; that’s how marginal it is.”

Nick Hillman, the director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think tank, agreed it would be “marginal”.

He said that for UK universities taking European Erasmus students “there is some costs associated with teaching them, but some of those are recovered through the Erasmus scheme – and you’ll be teaching these courses anyway”.

Hillman said that with the higher education sector under so much financial strain, some university leaders questioned the value for money of the UK’s readmission.

He said: “Is this such a good deal? I’ve been getting texts from people in the sector saying if I had a spare half a billion quid, is this the first thing I’d spend it on?”

The latest iteration of the Erasmus scheme also offers opportunities to apprentices and those taking part in “individual and group learner mobility” programmes.

Education staff will also be able to take part in training, job shadowing and teaching exchanges, while coaches and other sports staff will be able to participate in professional development activities and build partnerships with institutions in other countries.

James Arrowsmith, director of Universities UK International, said that Erasmus would offer financial opportunities but British universities were awaiting further information on this.

“It’s such a broad programme and there are so many things you can take advantage of as a university,” he said. “It’s significantly different from the last time we were in the programme. It’s quite hard to determine at this stage what are the real opportunities that it presents.”

He said there would be “pots of funding that universities would be able to bid into” but “we’re not entirely clear on what they are at the moment”.

Arrowsmith said that European students coming to the UK would inject more money into the country, but there were more intangible benefits too.

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“Erasmus, it’s always been about more than the bottom line,” he said. “I think it’s around the student experience and the opportunities universities can give to [European] students at their universities as well.

“If a student is here they make an economic contribution. What I assume as well is that the Government is looking at this not just as an investment in universities and young people and mobility, it’s an investment in the wider political relationship between the UK and EU.”

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the EU relations minister, said rejoining Erasmus is “a huge win” for young people.

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