After disappointment over the Erasmus programme, there are reasons to be optimistic about the Turing scheme
3 min read
On Christmas Eve, we learned that the UK would not be taking part in the next Erasmus programme. Although the UK and EU agreed a basis for the UK’s continued participation in the major research programme, Horizon Europe, there was no agreement on Erasmus.
This has been a great disappointment to many, including many MPs and Peers who argued that Erasmus brought great benefits to the UK, beyond the calculation of financial contribution versus financial return.
However, in the same moment that we got the news about Erasmus, we also learned that the government has committed £110 million to a new scheme to support UK students from schools, colleges and universities to gain international experience. This is very significant.
Within Universities UK, during the past two years, we were well aware of the risk that no agreement would be reached on the UK’s participation in Erasmus, and had worked with universities across all four nations of the UK to develop proposals for an alternative national scheme. In the beginning we got little encouragement from ministers or the Department for Education. Even then, public finances were under pressure. The most we could hope for, we understood, was a small scheme to support the most disadvantaged students.
Roll forward to 2021 and the view has changed. Throughout the debate about Erasmus, a wider range of politicians and officials have come to understand the link between international experience and the academic and employment prospects of those who have those opportunities. These benefits are most pronounced for those from the least advantaged backgrounds, as Universities UK International’s Gone International studies have shown. Linking data about those students who have been overseas, with data on what happened to them after they graduated, we have been able to demonstrate a consistent correlation between mobility and employment and earnings.
Yet the truth is that the UK has been pretty woeful when it comes to encouraging students to take advantage of opportunities for international study, work and volunteering. Perhaps part of the reason for the very low numbers who have taken up opportunities, particularly for low-income groups, has been the relative inflexibility of Erasmus opportunities. For years we argued that it should support shorter periods abroad, which are more attractive to students who need to hold down part time and vacation jobs to fund their studies, or who have caring responsibilities. Although the next programme may start to address this, previous programmes set a lower limit on periods abroad of three months.
We also know that language is a real barrier to mobility. Although Erasmus did support a limited number of opportunities to study in anglophone countries, through support for international credit mobility, the vast majority of opportunities beyond Europe were either funded by universities or students themselves, limiting the number available. I firmly believe that the opportunity to learn other languages is a great benefit of mobility – but it is not the only one, and therefore I think we should be open minded about supporting students to study in great universities in the United States, Australia and Canada, as well as destinations where there will be an opportunity to learn other languages.
So, there is a chance here for Turing to fill some of the gaps left by Erasmus, by supporting periods overseas of less than three months, and by enabling students to go to a wider range of destinations.
A generation of graduates who have international experience could lay the foundations for the open, globally engaged economy the government seeks to build. So, while I share the sadness that we will be excluded from many of the other aspects of the Erasmus programme, I am an enthusiast for Turing. I hope that it will support significant growth in the number of graduates who have the skills, resilience, adaptability, and insight that international experience can help to foster.
