No deal Brexit hits Erasmus student exchanges

I just received an email from the administrator of the Erasmus programme at a major university in France. Over many years, this institution has built up exchanges with top tier universities in Britain. Students from the French university swap places with their British counterparts, allowing them to learn or perfect each others’ languages and increase their opportunities to build their future.

This year, the future of that programme is unclear.

The forwarded email announces, with great sadness, that Brexit has thrown its future into uncertainty. Students currently applying for exchanges that would start in September do not know whether they will receive the usual grant, which is enough to cover travel and some rent costs. This puts the exchange out of reach of many. It means some will have to cancel their applications now, irrespective of how Brexit is ultimately resolved. And when it comes to UK universities, the future of the agreement under which students pay only the fees of their home university is uncertain.

Erasmus exchanges are being shifted out of Derry into Letterkenny and Donegal as a result:

If there is a No Deal Brexit, that funding will certainly be lost; if a deal is reached in the nick of time, it’s uncertain what will happen — funding for exchange students is just one tiny detail in a vortex of Brexit unknowns.

https://twitter.com/cregbongreft1/status/1097557733673443329

The EU is proposing a special regulation to ensure that in the case of a No Deal Brexit, students who have already begun programmes can finish them without disruption. But the links between university students in the UK and across the rest of Europe are already being severed.

Students in other situations face even greater uncertainty: British students at Dutch universities have been warned of astronomic fee hikes, depending on their situation. Students moving between Ireland and the UK have certainty for the coming academic year, but face the same currency and border risks that face all of us.

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