Question important for Students – Why won’t the UK continue to participate in Erasmus?

By leaving the EU, the UK effectively terminated the possibility for EU and UK students to benefit from the Erasmus exchange programme.

The Erasmus programme is open to the participation of third countries under the conditions set out in the basic act establishing the programme. Among these, third countries that become associated to Erasmus have to participate in the programme in full, to ensure the synergies between the different areas in the programme.

The UK requested partial participation in the programme, which is not foreseen in the basic act establishing Erasmus. The UK subsequently decided that it did not want to participate in Erasmus.

This will mean that UK participants will lose the chance to benefit from the programme: during the period 2014-2020, over 7 300 UK organisations were involved in the programme. The programme benefitted more than 197 000 UK participants, of which more than 100 000 UK students went abroad in the framework of the programme.

_EU, 26.12.2020