The Liberal Democrats are the party that are committed to rejoining the Erasmus+ scheme and giving higher education institutions, students and young workers the boost many want and need to kickstart their careers. With human, economic and academic benefits, it is once again poor politics from all other major parties, who refuse to do more for those involved in education.
Staying in Erasmus should be a no-brainer, yet we have a fight on our hands to save it. Liberal Democrats will campaign relentlessly to stop the Conservatives taking us out of Erasmus and many other vital EU programmes. We will not lot Boris Johnson weaken our education system and limit the horizons of our young people.
- Layla Moran, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs (previously Spokesperson for Education), Jan 2020
Erasmus has long been a herald of higher education collaboration. By bringing students from the EU to our education institutions, and giving our students the opportunity to study in the EU, our higher education was strengthened.
Since leaving the EU, Conservatives have added to the long list of broken promises by going back on there being 'no risk' to Erasmus after leaving the Union. As Layla Moran (the current Lib Dem spokesperson for foreign affairs, and ex-Lib Dem spokesperson for education) raised concerns of universities in a Guardian article many years ago. Now, the UK's replacement, the Turing Scheme, has been underwhelming, giving less support for students to study abroad, adding red-tape and bureaucracy to sorting tuition fees for students, and limiting teaching and college staff, as well as youth workers from benefitting, it is clear that the Scheme is less ambitious and less effective than Erasmus.
But it is not only the Conservatives who are failing the education system. In Scotland, the SNP have as of yet failed to fulfil their 2021 manifesto pledge for an Erasmus replacement. Liam McArthur MSP scrutinised the Scottish Government, as did Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson, on the Scottish National Party's failure to come up with an Erasmus alternative.
Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat Member for Bath, made a strong case for the government to prioritise the development of a new UK–EU Youth Exchange Programme.
Both Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, and Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Layla Moran, have welcomed the European Union’s proposals for a Youth Mobility scheme, published on Friday. Ed, in a post on Twitter/X called the scheme a “win-win-win”.
The Young European Movement, in partnership with European Movement UK and the British Youth Council, is calling on the UK Government to restore Britain’s membership of the Erasmus+ Programme, which was ended abruptly in 2020.
Embrace Erasmus is the title of the Young European Movement UK's campaign to rejoin the Erasmus+ programme.
Liberal Democrat Liam McArthur MSP has slammed the Scottish Government as they once again failed to confirm that a replacement for the Erasmus student exchange scheme will be in place by next September.
