Welcome, UK! New Prospects for Erasmus+

Ms Ansell, from a strategic perspective, what would renewed participation in Erasmus+ mean for the United Kingdom, a traditional centre of education and innovation?

Fundamentally, participation in Erasmus+ is about providing opportunities for young people to benefit from study, work or volunteering in Europe and beyond with all the benefits that brings to academic performance and the development of skills such as resilience, intercultural competence and problem-solving. I also hope participation in the programme will enable young people to envisage futures that they might not otherwise have realised were possible.  

This is particularly important at a time when, like many countries in Europe, we are concerned about the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training. The recent Milburn Review noted that this is now nearly one million or one in eight. The Erasmus+ programme must support youth engagement, raise aspiration and develop skills.

It is also an important programme for people working in the education sector to engage with peers across Europe so that we can learn from each other, be stimulated to innovate and improve education in both the UK and partner countries. We can also work together on approaches to both emerging issues such as the role that artificial intelligence could or should play in education and long-standing challenges such as ensuring that all young people have equitable access to the opportunities of education. 

In the field of higher education, I would also expect participation in Erasmus+ to support engagement in Horizon Europe and vice versa so that the UK is again fully integrated into the whole European higher education and research ecosystem.

Let’s look at it from a different angle. In your view, what added value would the United Kingdom‘s participation bring to the European Higher Education Area as a whole?

The UK is fortunate to have excellent universities. This is in large part because we are well connected internationally with around a third of our academic staff and around a quarter of our students coming from overseas. Since the UK left the EU, however, the number of students from the EU has declined by over 50%. We know that when we were last part of the Erasmus+ programme, the UK was a popular destination for higher education mobility, and we hope that our participation will create a new pathway for EU students to study in the UK.

The UK also has strength and depth in research – and this is also a result of being internationally connected. Over 60% of our research output is created in collaboration with one or more international partners. While European nations have always been among our most valued partners with Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland all in our top 10 partner countries for international publications and research, our top two partners are the United States and China with Australia and Canada making up the top 10. I would hope therefore that the UK’s involvement in both Horizon and Erasmus+ would help the EU to produce excellent research within our region and to engage with major centres of research elsewhere.

More widely, we hope that the UK’s participation in Erasmus+ will also enable more UK universities to participate in European University Alliances and engage in Training and Cooperation Activities (TCA) looking at shared problems and, through these, improve the international competitiveness of higher education institutions in Europe, promote European values and identity and foster long-term structural, strategic, and sustainable cooperation between higher education institutions.  

What can British and European universities – and perhaps German universities, in particular – do already today to prepare for closer cooperation under Erasmus+ from 2027 onwards, ensuring a smooth transition process for the United Kingdom?

Germany has always been one of the UK’s closest education and research partners, and Erasmus+ gives us an opportunity to deepen and extend collaboration.

We are very grateful that many German universities sought to enable their UK partners to continue to participate in Erasmus+ projects as a third country during the period when we were outside of the programme and for the support that DAAD has provided from the moment the UK’s association to Erasmus+ was announced – including working together on partner-finder events and longitudinal research on the benefits of higher education mobility. Despite this, we expect there will be some loss in UK institutional knowledge and capacity. As a result, support from individual German universities in proposal development and design that aligns with Erasmus+ funding requirements and priorities is likely to be welcomed by UK counterparts.

We also see significant potential for Erasmus+ to strengthen collaboration beyond Europe. We have been very encouraged by DAAD’s leadership in exploring more ethical and equitable partnerships with Africa in higher education and research, for example.

What requests, criticisms, or uncertainties regarding the United Kingdom’s planned participation in Erasmus+ do you most frequently encounter in discussions with your European partners? What advantages do you see that outweigh any potential concerns?

Overwhelmingly, European partners have welcomed the UK’s planned participation in Erasmus+ and we have been inundated with offers of support. If anything, our concern has been how to respond to these while we are still setting up a National Agency and do not yet have the full complement of staff.

The one concern that does come up frequently is about visa rules and this will not be within the remit of the National Agency. I hope, however, that the overall value of participation – for all the reasons set out above – will motivate European partners and students to navigate the system.

The British Council has been designated as the United Kingdom‘s National Agency for Erasmus+. What does this mean for your organisation, and what preparations are currently underway at your organisation in anticipation of the re-association starting in 2027?

The British Council is absolutely delighted that the UK will be joining Erasmus+ from 2027, and we are equally proud that the British Council has been designated as the UK's National Agency. The aims of the Erasmus+ programme are highly aligned with our own Royal Charter, and we see tremendous opportunities for cultural engagement leading to understanding and trust, particularly with Europe, but also beyond.

It is, of course, not a small task to set up a National Agency and the timeframe – we were designated in April and need to be ready to start receiving applications from November – is very tight. It would be fair to say that a lot of colleagues have been working very intensely to enable us to achieve this and we are grateful that we have been able to draw on the advice and guidance of the previous Director of the UK National Agency and some of her team even though they have left the British Council.

How will we be able to tell in a few years’ time that a return to the Erasmus+ programme has been a success?

There are several different lenses through which we could look at success.

In purely programme terms, it will be a success if all the money available to the UK is spent on high quality mobility and partnership projects and that participation is equitably spread across all four nations of the UK, across all six eligible sectors and if a high proportion of the beneficiaries are people who otherwise wouldn’t have had the opportunity to study, work or volunteer overseas.

But beyond that, we see Erasmus+ as a critical contribution to the UK’s ambition to build closer ties to the EU and work constructively with our closest neighbours on the significant challenges, geopolitical, environmental and technological that we all face.

Thank you very much for the interview, Ms. Ansell.