Erasmus vs Turing: The future of studying in a post-Brexit Europe

In March, Spain’s foreign minister, Arancha Gonzalez Laya, was asked if there was something she would miss about the United Kingdom as it left the European Union. “They’ve always been ultra-pragmatists in international relations, and I will miss that,” she said. “I will also miss this ability they had to look at the world as a globalised country which they are in. In a way, Spain would feel a close affinity to the UK in that we have a history where we’ve looked at the world.”

Of course, Spain and Britain share a long and intricate past – from 16th-century Tudor marriages to wars, allegiances, expat mining companies and the friendly roots of 19th century fútbol. Today, however, they are interwoven through a network of socio-economic, political, and academic alliances fuelled by lucrative tourism and bilateral migration.  

“But I guess that’s what British citizens have decided,” continued González, “so we’ll try to, in any event – from this new position of the UK being a third country to the European Union – continue to have a close alliance and extremely close relationships with the UK.”

On 1 January 2021, the UK fully left the EU, ending more than four decades of enjoying the rights and benefits of membership. Now the vicissitudes of Brexit are starting to be keenly felt – from Kafkaesque customs processes, to restrictions on the freedom of movement and the suspension of the right to study as a national in any member state. 

With the protracted advent of Brexit, some of the close associations between the UK and Spain could be at risk. Crucially, much of the beneficial academic infrastructure the UK had previously shared with EU partners such as Spain may now be in peril in the post-Brexit milieu. 

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Dr Aaron Kahn, convenor of modern language degree programmes and lecturer in Spanish at the University of Sussex, spoke to The Independent about the effects of Brexit on the higher education in general. “The impact of Brexit is still being felt as we enter our first recruitment cycle since the end of the transition period,” he says. 

“As far as I know there has been no additional investment in scholarships or financial assistance for foreign students coming into the UK,” says Dr Kahn. “Overall, universities seem to be focussing more on countries such as Saudi Arabia, China, India, Nigeria, the UAE and other non-EU countries.” 

Continuing to reference the sector in the aggregate, Dr Kahn says: “Higher education institutions implement international strategies but it’s not entirely clear what this is supposed to mean, particularly with cuts to arts and humanities subjects and language degree programmes specifically.

“What will likely happen, is that there will be a drop of EU students coming to the UK to study subjects in the arts, humanities and social sciences. There is far more funding in the Stem subjects.”  

One example of a negative result in all of this, says Kahn, is that the Arts and Humanities Foundation Year is going to lose much of its financial support from government, particularly in terms of loans and grants offered to those students. This will have a great impact on access, he says, and any cuts to it disproportionately affect those from under-privileged backgrounds and it will drain arts and humanities subjects of students.

Many university decisions are based on government decisions and in some ways their hands are tied, but different universities are in different financial states. Those who have been wiser with investments and in getting donations from alumni are in more of a position to offer a wider variety of funding.  

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“Some universities, for example, are guaranteeing funding for UK students who have a mandatory year abroad as part of their degree,” says Kahn. “This, however, will not apply to others wanting to come to the UK.”

“In addition, the year abroad opportunities funded by Erasmus represented a golden opportunity for young people to have this transformational experience. This will have the same effect on students from Spain wanting to study here. I’m not sure if they will be able to use Erasmus funding to do a study abroad in the UK. Whenever we have sent students to non-EU countries, such as Latin America or the island of Réunion, students had to pay.”  

Since its inauguration in 1987, the Erasmus programme has provided an array of pan-European student exchanges, together with links between universities, schools, apprenticeships, and work experience schemes. Erasmus+ – its most recent incarnation – has seen nearly 200,000 people take part, including approximately 15,000 British university students every year.  

For many, the Erasmus experience has created life-defining memories of learning, friendship, and future prospects. So why is it being erased? 

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Despite bullishly assuring MPs that there was no threat to UK participation in the Erasmus scheme, in December 2020 Boris Johnson U-turned on the decision. In the new 2021-27 iteration, the UK will be a non-associated third country with a very limited number of opportunities; some already funded projects will overlap and phase out until completion. Spain and the other 26 member states currently participate in the scheme, in addition to many other non-EU partner countries. 

The prime minister stated that “it was a tough decision” to leave Erasmus, but that it was an “extremely expensive” programme to be a part of. The UK reneged on its promise after it decided to reject the EU’s stipulation to join the scheme for seven years, with the fee to be paid based on national income.  

In its stead, Downing Street has pledged £100m for a new international Turing Scheme, which will be delivered by the British Council and Ecorys. The programme hopes to fund around 35,000 students enrolled at UK institutions in its initial year, which begins in September 2021. However, it is not a direct replacement.  

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The Turing Scheme is not explicitly an exchange programme – in principle, it only finances outward mobility. It will not fund EU students coming to the UK as it is designed to promote international opportunities for students in the British education system.  

Champions of the scheme argue that it supports British students from all disciplines plus those from disadvantaged backgrounds to study globally, not just in the EU. However, its critics suggest that its promised aims are unfulfillable.  

Criticism of the Turing Scheme includes the stark fact that it will not fund travel or tuition costs, that its pledge of around £110m would be insufficient and incommensurate, that unlike Erasmus+, staff are now exempt from participating, and that its budget after the first year is unknown.  

Following the hasty announcement of the Turing Scheme, the Welsh government has already planned to allocate £65m of additional funds into its own international learning exchange programme scheduled to run from 2022-26. Developed in collaboration with Cardiff University, it hopes to enable 15,000 participants from Wales to go abroad across its first four years, with 10,000 participants coming to study or work in Wales. 

At its root, quitting the Erasmus scheme will cost UK universities and the wider economy: both financially and culturally. Earlier this year, a group of education and business leaders calculated that the absence of funding for European students would “blow a hole” in the UK’s economy worth £243m a year.

Lord Peter Ricketts, former head of the Foreign Office and now a crossbench peer, cautioned that a “UK alternative from a standing start will not be a full substitute. The decision not to participate in Erasmus is short-sighted and mean-spirited. The programme transformed the life chances of thousands of Brits, many from disadvantaged backgrounds. Those too young to vote in the referendum will be the ones to suffer.” 

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In 2019, 54,619 students and trainees from the UK participated in the Erasmus scheme – the most popular destination countries being Spain, France and Germany. Sadly, this deprivation is not simply isolated to home students, but will be felt in Spain and across Europe. The extent to which Spanish students’ ability and desire to study in the UK seems ambiguous. 

That said, Carolina Jimenez, head of education and science at the British Council, Spain, told The Independent that the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities in Spain, has continued to see high demand from Spanish students for UK universities. “The UK offers proximity, native English language, international student bodies, excellent facilities and strong relations with business,” she says.

However, Spanish students will now be subject to visa stipulations and will be unable to access UK government course funding after the current academic year. This might cause concern and could perhaps cause some students from Spain to think twice about coming to the UK. However, the British Council believes that the visa stipulation will not affect students’ decisions too much – that it is a simple and straightforward process.

“As regards student loans,” says Jimenez, “it is normal in Spain that families finance the cost of university and also, there are more scholarships now. Students with excellent grading have a good chance to find a scholarship to support with costs.  

“We hope that the quality of UK universities will continue to attract many students to the UK. Nevertheless, some students will undeniably be affected by lack of access to a UK government loan and the higher fees.”        

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In turn, on the subject of the UK’s Turing Scheme and its global scope, Jimenez suggests that: “We will see a diverse range of international students coming to study at Spanish universities and we encourage Spanish institutions to reach out to their UK partners to host Turing students. There is also still some Erasmus+ funding left from the previous funding period. Overall, study abroad periods are likely to be less affected than anticipated.” 

In 2020, there were approximately 13,000 Spanish students enrolled at universities across the UK. This figure included both fully paid programmes as well as exchanges. What will happen to this figure in the future remains uncertain like many of Brexit’s impacts. 

According to Ucas interim data from 2021-22, there is a 27 per cent downturn on Spanish students applying to study at UK universities as compared to 2020-21.

“We estimate that the overall figure will be down by a similar percentage in 2021 as a reflection of reduced mobility due to the Covid pandemic,” says Jimenez, “as well as lower number of applications.  We are extremely hopeful that the figures will recover once new partnerships and ways of collaboration are established. Collaborations between Spanish and UK universities are very strong, with interest on both sides to continue.”   

There seems to be some information to suggest that UK universities may offer reduced fees for Spanish an EU students or keep them level with current home rates, rather than increasing them for students without settled or pre-settled status.  

However there is a lack of certainty. Several universities have already decided to offer scholarships to maintain local fees for EU students; however, the majority have calculated their offers with the higher fees of international students in mind.  

Dominic Brown, an English language teacher from London working in Spain, told The Independent that: “I’ve already heard a lot of international students, who had planned to move to the UK, decide against that due to Brexit and the feeling that they are not wanted there. It’s really upsetting to think that those people won’t get the opportunity to experience British culture at its best, and even if they were to go, they would have an undercurrent of fear that half of the population didn’t want them there.” 

Indeed, the seismic effects of Brexit are felt in all directions. Not just with Spanish nationals studying in Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Bilbao, and Valencia but with British people living across Spain. This expat demographic is considered the largest across Europe, with approximately 285,000 Britons living across the length and breadth of Spain. 

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For them, it seems the bureaucratic issues engendered by Brexit have been cause for concern. Those already living in Spain have been required to apply for a Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero (TIE) – a kind of residence document. 

“Most bureaucratic processes in Spain are complicated, confusing and poorly explained online or anywhere else,” says Alice Ochocka, a London-born language teacher living in Granada. “Turning the NIE into a TIE was actually pretty straightforward once I had the correct information. What slowed things down and made it feel arduous was largely due to Covid-19.” 

When asked whether the consequences of Brexit have become apparent in Spain’s perspective on education she replies: “Yes, particularly with prices; prices of travel, accommodation, and course fees are the main turn-off for foreign students, I think. If it is too expensive and complicated, they won’t come. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more and more students going to Ireland to study English – why wouldn’t they?” 

Becca Hedley – a language teacher from Brighton teaching English in Andalucía – told me that the lack of clear information from both the Spanish and UK governments was frustrating when she applied for her TIE. However, “it was interesting to see that UK immigrants still seemed to be treated with less suspicion than immigrants from less affluent, non-western countries at the Oficina de Extranjería”.

“I think Brexit will make Spanish students less likely to come to the UK to study for practical reasons,” she says. “Even if they like the idea of it, it won’t be a reality for many from poorer families. I guess restrictions in freedom of movement will cause Britain to become more and more isolated.”  

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The impacts of both Brexit and Covid-19 have confused conventional ways of understanding the world. Lockdowns and travel restrictions, for instance, changed our perception of freedom and the vanishing points of transnational disaster. 

But the UK’s relationship with Europe seems to be in parallax view – a self-imposed displacement of its position. From one angle, an insular Britain looks guarded and unenlightened; from the other, a meretricious token of boosterism and jingoistic Johnsonism: “open, generous, outward-looking, internationalist and free-trading”.

As the years since the result of the referendum have rolled on, there seems to have been a foreshortening of the British perspective on its relationship with Spain and other EU-member states. As 2021 emerges from the pandemic and the constitutional reality of withdrawal becomes jarringly clear, hopefully outward mobility and broad horizons will be more than just cliches.