SNP minister to push UK Government for return to Erasmus programme

An SNP minister says he will push the Labour government at Westminster for the UK to join the Erasmus plus exchange programme.

Further and Higher Education Minister Graeme Dey says universities are universally in favour of such a move.

The UK was part of Erasmus plus before Brexit, with the Conservatives replacing it with a new arrangement called the Turing scheme.

The Scottish Government has promised it will introduce its own replacement for Scottish students, but it has not yet fully launched.

Dey told Scotland On Sunday: “If you walked into each of our universities now and said, Erasmus, would you want to return? Overwhelmingly they would say, ‘yes’.

“I know there was a deal negotiated, but as we’ve seen with our friends in Europe, it is possible to renegotiate.

“I don’t currently know what the view of the new UK government is.

“At minimum, I think you would want to see an improvement on the position currently.

“But of course we want to get back into those engagements. It has been deeply harmful, and not just for our colleges and universities, but our youth sector as well.

“I’ve not yet had a conversation (with Labour ministers), but when we do have the conversation, I want to interrogate that among other things.”

“Clearly we would hope the incoming UK government might look differently at Erasmus participation, that is certainly an ask we have.”

He said he hoped the new UK Government would “look differently at Erasmus participation”.

A UK government spokesperson told the newspaper: “We continue to work with the higher education sector to ensure our universities attract the brightest and best and support our economy, however we have no plans to re-join the Erasmus scheme.”