Bournemouth University will expect fewer European students on campus after this academic year following the closure of the Erasmus exchange program for the UK. While it is still unclear what this ending entails, the European influence will surely be missed.
The UK left the European Union at the beginning of 2020, as a result Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the UK’s withdrawal from the Erasmus scheme in the end of that same year. It has been one of the most contentious issues during the transition period as the program, which offered student exchanges as well as school links, work experience and apprenticeships across Europe, has been enriching for so many students and staff since its implementation in 1987.
As written in the program guide, Erasmus aims to enable lifelong learning across Europe. It promotes learning together and learning from each other and therefore embodies the European idea. The European Commission, which has ultimate authority over the program called Erasmus an “investment in knowledge, skills and competences (that) will benefit individuals, institutions, organisations and society as a whole by contributing to growth and ensuring equity, prosperity and social inclusion in Europe and beyond”. Up until now the UK was naturally one of the first-choice study abroad options for European students, as they saw it as good opportunity for improving their English and broadening their cultural horizons while staying relatively close to their continental home. In 2018 around 30,000 students used the opportunity of the Erasmus program to come to the UK for an exchange semester or a work placement. By the end of this academic year (2021-22) this will no longer be possible.
Kaja Stoltenberg, from Norway, is one of the last students to have the chance to get the UK Erasmus experience. She is currently studying journalism at Bournemouth University as an exchange student and she described some of the benefits for her academic and as well as her personal growth. “As I want to work as a journalist in Norway it is so helpful for my career to improve my English while actually experiencing a whole new journalistic environment as well.” She is certain that this exchange is going to benefit her future career immensely.
But Erasmus is about much more than just good job possibilities after graduating. Living and studying in the UK was something Kaja always wanted to do, because “being able to temporarily live in an English-speaking country within Europe is an amazing opportunity, as it allows us too really connect with people here and make friends easily”. The possibilities for Europeans to live in the UK are slipping away now, the end of Erasmus is only one example for that.
Brexit and the end of Erasmus not only deprives many European students of their dream of studying abroad, but also massively affects student and academic life at British universities. Up till now European influence always brought cultural enrichment, diversity, and academic excellence to campus. As an exchange student, Kaja experiences the value daily while attending her classes. She says: “We as exchange students feel like we are an essential part of what makes the study life here more diverse and the learning environment so productive”.
According to her experiences so far Erasmus is an exchange both sides benefit from. A study program like journalism thrives on the sharing of ideas and experiences between the students and the lecturers. “Getting an international perspective on journalistic work and reporting is so beneficial for me but also for my classmates here”, Kaja says.
Reporters Without Borders ranks Norway 1st in its Worldwide Press Freedom Index from 2021 and this fact is well known by Kajas lecturers. “My journalism lecturers and my fellow students always ask me about journalism in Norway and the differences in our countries are an ongoing topic during seminars”, she says. In conclusion UK students benefit immensely from the exchange students in their classes, they are getting a completely new view on the discipline they are studying and can gain new skills from that.
Boris Johnson announced the UK worked out a replacement for the Erasmus program, a national version called the Turing scheme. Concerns have been raised the funding regarding this scheme has not yet been backed up as required to support disadvantaged students to study abroad. As Kate Green, a British Labour Party politician serving as Member of Parliament and Shadow Secretary of State for Education said the government “rhetoric on the Turing Scheme does not live up to the reality”.
From an international perspective leaving the Erasmus program is a big loss not only for European students but especially for universities and students in the UK. As Britons are no longer “Europeans” in the eyes of the European Union, British students will now be treated like outsiders when it comes to applying for educational programs or jobs in Europe. “The UK maybe doesn’t know yet, but they made a big mistake with that. I don’t think they appreciated the value they receive from this program and will only realise it when they have lost it”, Kaja stated.
Luisa Gabriel
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