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Gerhard Dannemann has criticized London’s decision not to participate in the future of the European Erasmus student exchange program. All parties have greatly benefited from the program to promote overseas stays at universities, the director of the Britain Center at Berlin’s Humboldt University in Deutschlandfunk said on Saturday.
The future viability of the European Union and Britain also depends on Erasmus, Dannemann said. He complained that you could obviously score higher on matters related to fishing than higher education and student exchange. Dannemann expressed the hope that the Erasmus program could continue with Scotland.
Also in Britain, the country’s exit from the Erasmus program after the final implementation of Brexit was the subject of clear criticism. Scottish pro-European Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon and her Welsh colleague Mark Drakeford accused the British government of “cultural vandalism”. At the beginning of the year, the UK had also broken economically with the EU eleven months after the political breakdown.
The Erasmus exchange program has existed since 1987. Since then, around five million students have received support to study abroad; it is considered one of the most popular EU programs. In 2014, the previous programs for lifelong learning, youth and sport, as well as cooperation programs in higher education, were merged under the name Erasmus +.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson justified the move, but Erasmus was extremely expensive for his country. He also announced a replacement program. I wanted British students to be able to study at the best universities in the world and not just in Europe. For the nearly 150,000 students from EU countries currently enrolled in UK universities, studying abroad at UK universities is likely to be more expensive and more difficult.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier regretted Britain’s withdrawal from the Erasmus program. He called on the London government to quickly clarify its alternative program.
