EU’s Erasmus: barely used, ideologically-driven, fearfully expensive

We show Ms Sturgeon exactly why the Government made the right decision in dropping it

Facts4EU.Org’s lesson no.2 about why the UK left the EU’s expensive youth indoctrination plan

In our 'Primer' on Erasmus+ yesterday we looked at some political aspects of the whole debate, and at the Government’s new ‘Turing Scheme’ which will replace it. Today we start looking at Erasmus+ itself, and why it was never right for the United Kingdom's needs.

With the UK taking seven out of the ten top places in the Times’ list of “Best universities in Europe 2021”, it is clear that the EU needs the UK far more than the UK needs the EU, when it comes to student exchanges.

No wonder the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) reports that an astonishing 143,000 students from the EU27 were studying in the UK in the academic year 2018/2019.

We present the facts about Erasmus - the EU scheme to indoctrinate the youth of a continent

In this report we answer the following key questions

Is Erasmus+ a university student exchange programme?
How many UK students have actually benefited?
How much has it cost the UK taxpayer?
What is Erasmus+ and why is it dangerous?
How many UK university staff have taken advantage of it?

Photo right: Last year's EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker was rather keen on his youth initiatives. Photo © EU Commission

1. Is Erasmus+ a university student exchange programme?

No, it is not. Here is how the EU Commission describes it:

“Erasmus+ is the EU's programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe.”

This is not a description of an exchange programme, allowing students at UK universities to spend part of their degree courses at EU universities. It is a far wider programme, involving sport, youth work studies, and other activities and it is vastly expensive, costing billions. (See below.)

2. How many UK university students have benefited from Erasmus+?

This is the key question. How many students benefit for the billions the UK has spent with the EU on the Erasmus+ programme?

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

99.6% of UK students don’t even use the EU’s youth system, while EU27 students benefit hugely

Erasmus+ was used by only 9,993 UK students in 2019 [Source: EU Commission]
That's less than 10,000 out of a total of 2,383,970 higher education students in the UK [source:HESA]
Only 0.4% of UK students in higher education use the EU's Erasmus+
99.6% of UK students do not even use it at all
This alone makes the costs completely unjustifiable

3. How much does it cost UK and EU taxpayers?

A full one-third of the Erasmus+ budget isn’t for any form of exchanges for young people at all. It’s for “partnerships and reforms of the education and youth sectors.” Only two-thirds of the budget is for “learning opportunities abroad for young people”.

In 2019, the UK received only €87m (£79 million GBP) in grants for higher education students. This is out of a total EU budget for Erasmus+ of €16.4 billion over the period 2014-2020, an average of €2.34bn euros per year or £2.13 billion pounds. These already huge costs will rise dramatically this year, as the Erasmus budget has just been increased by an eye-watering 60%.

The UK Government has now pledged £100m (GBP) for the new Turing Scheme to replace Erasmus. That is 26% more than the £79 million the UK received back for its students, from its contributions to the EU under Erasmus+.

For higher education students the UK received just 4.1% of the total money the EU spent on Erasmus+ in 2019, despite being one of the few net contributors to the EU’s budget. To put this into context, in overall terms the UK was funding around 12.5% of the EU's budget.

The UK taxpayer has been funding Erasmus+ to the tune of approximately £266 million pounds per year.
Had the UK stayed in the EU, this would have increased this year to approximately £425 million pounds.

We should also point out that €1.7bn of the EU’s budget went to other countries, as part of the EU’s ‘External Action’ programme. This carried on throughout 2020, despite the UK having no say in how the money was spent.

4. So what really is Erasmus+, and why is it dangerous?

Erasmus+ is part of the “EU Youth Strategy” and the “European Education Area”. Here is what the EU Commission has to say about these.

“The EU Youth Strategy should contribute to realising this vision of young people by mobilising EU level policy instruments as well as actions at national, regional and local level by all stakeholders.”
“Erasmus+ doesn't just have opportunities for students… it has opportunities for a wide variety of individuals and organisations…. Erasmus+ also aims to promote the sustainable development of its partners in the field of higher education, and contribute to achieving the objectives of the EU Youth Strategy.”

In October 2020 the EU Commission announced that it will be completing a “European Education Area” by 2025, thereby moving one further step towards the homogenisation of the formerly independent nation states of Europe.

For years the EU has been achieving its goal by targeting young people with continuous propaganda and ‘initiatives’ as we have reported many times before. Here is what they said about their latest move:-

“The European Education Area is underpinned by six dimensions: quality, inclusion and gender equality, green and digital transitions, teachers, higher education, a stronger Europe in the world. Initiatives will inter alia look at ways to enhance quality, notably with regard to basic and digital skills and to make school education more inclusive and gender sensitive and improve school success. They will help strengthen understanding of climate change and sustainability, foster the greening of education infrastructure, support the teaching profession, further roll out European Universities and enhance connectivity among education and training institutions.
“The Communication sets out the means and milestones to achieve the European Education Area by 2025, supported by Europe's Recovery Plan (NextGenerationEU) and the Erasmus+ Programme.”

In short, Erasmus+ is not a student exchange programme. It is part of a concerted strategy from the EU Commission to indoctrinate the youth of Europe.

5. How have the teaching staff done out of Erasmus+?

Our analysis shows that the pro-EU and anti-Brexit teaching staff who are so in favour of Erasmus+ have benefited rather more than their students.

According to the EU Commission a total of 3,962 UK teaching staff used Erasmus+ in 2019. With HESA reporting total staff numbers of 217,065 this equates to 1.8% of the teaching body - a take-up of more than four times the proportion of their student population.

Perhaps this helps to explain the huge proportion of the teaching profession who voted to Remain.

UK teaching staff are massively anti-Brexit

75% of secondary school teachers backed Remain
Nearly 90% of university lecturers backed Remain

Above is how the teaching profession voted in the EU Referendum, according to the Times Educational Supplement survey at the time.

Observations

Believing in the young people of the United Kingdom

The Facts4EU.Org team believe strongly in the importance and power of education. When it comes to student exchanges, we believe these are hugely beneficial - both to the students concerned and to the effect these can have on mutual understanding and good relations between countries in the future.

In the long campaign we have waged against the EU's Erasmus+ we have been careful to stress that educational opportunities for British young people to study abroad are vital. We also value very highly the positive impact of large numbers of future world leaders and influencers who came to the UK as part of their studies when they were young.

Nicola, if you want this then you should pay for it

The Scottish First Minister has accused the UK Government of "cultural vandalism" in discontinuing the UK's membership of the EU's Erasmus+ programme. With the dramatic fall in the international rankings of the Scottish education system under the SNP's rule, we suggest that the epithet of vandalism might perhaps be better applied closer to home.

Our criticisms have been solely confined to the EU's Erasmus scheme: its ideological motives, its inefficient use of resources, and its huge spread into areas which have nothing to do with the basic premise of student exchanges. We would like to think that as the only Brexit organisation which has conducted a consistent campaign to inform MPs about the true nature of Erasmus, we made a difference. Certainly the U-turn by Government on this issue just before Christmas was unexpected by everyone, except perhaps us. It was the right decision.

We continue to speak to the Dept of Education about the new Turing Scheme and hope to bring readers some more details about this in due course.

Can we and should we carry on?

Finally, we are struggling and we need your help. We have far more to do in researching, publishing, campaigning and lobbying Parliament than we have in terms of the financial resources to fulfil these tasks. We rely 100% on public donations from readers like you. Unlike the Remain/Rejoin camp, we do not have foreign billionaires to subsidise our work.

Covid measures have hit many people's incomes. The whole Covid thing has certainly hit the level of donations we receive, which were already less than we needed to survive. We are most grateful to readers who have donated in recent days, but we badly need more readers to do the same. 10 readers donating £500 per month, or 50 readers donating £100 per month, or 1000 readers donating £5 per month - on top of the one-off donations and monthly donations we currently receive, this would just about keep us going.

If you believe in a fully-free, independent, and sovereign United Kingdom, please make a donation now. It’s quick, secure, and confidential, and you can use one of the links below or you can use our Donations page here. You will receive a personal, friendly ‘thank you’ from a member of our team within 24 hours. Thank you so much if you can help to keep us going in these critical months ahead.

[ Sources: EU Commission | Higher Education Statistics Agency | Times Educational Supplement | UK Dept of Education ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Wed 06 Jan 2021

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Reader Comments 17

1. Richard H , Wednesday, January 06, 2021, 07:43:

Looking forward to the usual remoaner comments from teachers, but they are still in bed so it might take a while.

2. Helen , Wednesday, January 06, 2021, 08:34:

Student exchange programmes weren't invented by the EU and are not exclusive to it. Just like so many things that they're trying to take credit for. Erasmus is just one scheme, clearly not brilliant for the UK. Even if it was, going forward we shouldn't rely on anything that is under the EU's control.

3. William Philpott , Wednesday, January 06, 2021, 08:58:

Just as with trade, the EU was the real beneficiary. It often seems to be a case of predominantly one way traffic. 🤔

4. Ashley Great Britain , Wednesday, January 06, 2021, 10:25:

One day remainers will see,Whether they like it or not, That the Eu has always been about power and control over the nations of Europe.
Britain has been ravaged for decade's by the Eu and were lucky to barely come out the other side.
Now is the time for uplift and national renewal.

5. Bob Newman , Wednesday, January 06, 2021, 10:57:

And now they will have a chance to get a university education in countries outside the EU for those who wouldn't normally have the means, win win for them I'd say.

6. Tom H , Wednesday, January 06, 2021, 11:23:

"UK teaching staff are massively anti-Brexit" - That's because they are educated.
This was shown to be consistent throughout the population, not just teachers.
Official stats on the govt site show that:
78% of Leave had no qualifications, as did 61% of people whose highest qualification was a GCSE
Only 26% of people with a degree-level qualification voted Leave.
Make that of it what you will. No donation required.
5. While we were in the EU, anyone in the UK could have studied anywhere in the EU - for free in most cases (France, Scandinavia, Germany).
People just couldn't stomach having to learn another language.

7. kb , Wednesday, January 06, 2021, 12:06:

Erasmus+: £2.13bn p.a. multiplied by the UK contribution rate of 12.5% and divided by 9993 students is £26.6k per UK student per year.
The Turing scheme: £100m divided by 9993 students is only £10k per student per year (assuming the same number of students as the Erasmus+ scheme).
£10k p.a. is barely enough to pay the tuition fee at an English university.

8. Karen , Wednesday, January 06, 2021, 13:26:

Tom H hates democracy like all rejoiners do. Still can't process the fact that his plumber's vote is worth the same as his.
A good example why education doesn't necessary result in intelligence.
Doesn't even understand that so called 'free' is paid by taxpayers like his plumber.

9. slyfox , Wednesday, January 06, 2021, 13:47:

So your aim after such a good education then Nicola, was to destroy Scotland's future, its education, its health, its economy? Well you are on course!

10. Mike S , Wednesday, January 06, 2021, 15:33:

Erasmus+ sound's like a doppelganger of the 1930's & 40's Hitler Youth! "Erasmus+ is the EU's programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe" I'm sure I've read something similar to that in the history book's of Europe in the lead up to & during WW2! As expected, the EU & their UK supporting puppet's have very clearly learnt nothing from the mistake's of the past. Head's too far up their own rear end's, perhap's?! I think that may just well be the case!

17 comments, page 1 of 2

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