{"id":533390,"date":"2026-04-16T03:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T03:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/533390\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T03:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T03:13:07","slug":"uk-signs-deal-to-rejoin-eus-erasmus-exchange-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/533390\/","title":{"rendered":"UK signs deal to rejoin EU’s Erasmus exchange scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United Kingdom<\/a> and the European Union<\/a> have finalized an agreement allowing Britain to take part in the bloc’s Erasmus+ student exchange scheme.<\/p>\n

More than 100,000 people are expected to benefit when they become eligible on January 1, 2027, the British government said in a statement on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The agreement is currently only for one year, and Britain will contribute 570 million pounds (\u20ac655 million, $774 million) towards the scheme’s costs in 2027.<\/p>\n

What is Erasmus?<\/p>\n

Erasmus is the EU’s flagship student exchange scheme that allows people to study and train across much of Europe for up to a year.<\/p>\n

It started in 1987 with university exchanges, but now also includes school exchanges, work experience, apprenticeships and sport.<\/p>\n

Those participating aren’t charged tuition at their host school or university; instead, they continue to pay the fees of their home institution.<\/p>\n

It includes all 27 EU member states, plus Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Serbia, Turkey and North Macedonia.<\/p>\n

More than 1.4 million people trained, worked or volunteered in eligible countries in 2024, the latest year for which figures are available.<\/p>\n

Why did Britain leave Erasmus?<\/p>\n

After Brexit, which saw Britain formally leave the EU in January 2020, the EU offered Britain the chance to pay a fee to continue in the Erasmus program.<\/p>\n

But the government of British then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the scheme was too expensive.<\/p>\n

At the time, Johnson said that the UK lost money under Erasmus as twice as many EU nationals came to the UK to study as British students went elsewhere in Europe.<\/p>\n

The UK officially quit Erasmus in January 2021.<\/p>\n

Why is Britain returning to Erasmus?<\/p>\n

The British government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been pursuing a closer relationship, or a “reset” with the EU.<\/p>\n

In a significant policy reversal, the UK announced in December 2025\u00a0that it would rejoin Erasmus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“From learning a language to building confidence and work experience, Erasmus+ offers transformative opportunities to enhance young people’s life chances,” UK skills minister Jacqui Smith said in Wednesday’s statement.<\/p>\n

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen<\/a> said Europe and the UK “have enjoyed mutually beneficial educational ties for centuries.”<\/p>\n

“Strengthening those ties further makes perfect sense on both sides \u2014 for our\u00a0students, teachers, educational systems, economies and societies as a whole,” she added in a statement.<\/p>\n

As well as the UK, non-EU member Switzerland will also join the Erasmus scheme.<\/p>\n

Edited by: Sean Sinico<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United Kingdom and the European Union have finalized an agreement allowing Britain to take part in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-533390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}