Dismay and anger over Johnson’s decision to quit ‘expensive’ Erasmus exchange programme
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The Local – British students will no longer be able to participate in the Erasmus exchange programme after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson rejected the chance to continue participating in the scheme.
Speaking after the Brexit deal was announced the EU’s negotiator Michel Barnier said: “I am simply expressing two regrets about this societal cooperation.
“That the British government chose not to participate in the Erasmus exchange program.”
Barnier also expressed regret that the UK decided to end freedom of movement in another blow to the “social mobility” of young Britons.
Erasmus has been in operation since the late 1980s and has allowed British students to study at universities in the EU member states for set periods of time.
Tens of thousands have taken advantage of the scheme and the small financial grants it offers to help students study abroad.
British PM Boris Johnson defended the decision to end participation in Erasmus saying : “It was a tough decision” but said “Erasmus was extremely expensive.”
He said the government will replace Erasmus with “a UK scheme for students to go around the world, it will be called the Turing scheme… named after Alan Turing”
But on Twitter young people and those who have participated in Erasmus were dismayed.
“Erasmus changed my life. I’m devastated thousands of British students won’t get to experience the joy of meeting people from different European cultures,” said one.
