THE LAUNCH - ‘Dare to Think Differently' - Re-Energising UK’s Youth - UK’s Turing Scheme vs EU’s Erasmus+

Delivering educational opportunities for UK students in 160 destinations across the globe

Montage © Facts4EU.Org - The EU's Erasmus and the UK's Alan Turing OBE FRS, (codebreaker and inventor of the first stored program computer)

Global opportunities for learning, for the UK's young people - Part One

Just over a week ago on Saturday 15 July 2023 the Government published a statement on the innovative ‘Turing Scheme’ for young people wanting educational opportunities overseas. It received little coverage.

The news is excellent and this scheme is clearly working.

A Brexit Facts4EU three-parter on opportunities for overseas study post-Brexit

Part One : The facts about Erasmus+ (This report)
Part Two : Brexit Britain’s new student programme set out to beat EU’s by over 50% in year one
Part Three : Latest update on Turing Scheme in 2023 – UK’s global alternative to EU’s Erasmus+

A three-part Facts4EU.Org explainer - for students, parents, politicians, and the public

The United Kingdom is no longer part of the EU’s vastly expensive ‘Erasmus+’ scheme for overseas study, which was barely used by British students but used far more by their teachers and lecturers – and by EU students wanting to study for free in the UK.

When the UK left the EU, the Government had already set up an alternative UK scheme to the EU’s Erasmus+. The British scheme is named after the brilliant British mathematician Alan Turing – the key man in breaking the German Enigma code at Bletchley Park in WWII. The Turing Scheme will enter its third year this September, following two successful years since its inauguration.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org outlines the scheme, compares it to the EU’s Erasmus+, and invites all young people to discover the global opportunities open to them, from Australia to the USA to Zimbabwe.

The series summary

Just under two years ago Brexit Facts4EU.Org produced two definitive reports on Erasmus+ and on the UK’s Turing Scheme.

Looking back today, they stand the test of time. We have adapted these reports and we will end with an update and hopefully some comments from the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, the Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP.

Today we look at what we left when we left the EU, and why we should not go back. Erasmus+ was never delivering for the UK’s students – but we paid handsomely for it.

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. (Note: All figures for student numbers in this report are for the pre-Covid year - 2018/2019.)

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 of the Erasmus budget did the EU actually spend on students?
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: Former 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.”
“It is open to school pupils, higher education and vocational education and training students, adult learners, youth exchanges, youth workers and sport coaches.”

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 and adult work, and other activities, and it is vastly expensive, costing billions. (See below.)

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

This is the key question. How many students benefited from the billions the UK spent with the EU on the Erasmus+ programme?

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

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

Erasmus+ was used by only 9,993 UK students in the pre-Covid year of 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 used the EU's Erasmus+
99.6% of UK students did not even use it at all
This alone makes the costs completely unjustifiable

3. How much of the Erasmus budget did the EU spend on students?

A full two-thirds 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 one-third of the budget is for “learning opportunities abroad for young people”.

4. How much did it cost UK and EU taxpayers?

In 2019, the UK received only €87m (c.£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 c.£2 billion pounds per year. This includes the 'extras' which the EU spends for Erasmus+ outside the EU.

These already huge costs have risen dramatically, as the Erasmus budget has been increased by an eye-watering 74%. The new budget (including the extras) is €28.4bn compared to 16.38bn in the last budget.

In 2021 the UK Government pledged £110m (GBP) for the new Turing Scheme to replace Erasmus. This is 39% more than the £79 million the UK received back for its students, from its contributions to the EU under Erasmus+.

The UK taxpayer was funding Erasmus+ to the tune of approximately £266 million pounds per year.
Had the UK stayed in the EU, this would now have increased to approximately £463m per year.

We should also point out that €1.7bn of the EU’s budget went to other countries outside the EU, 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.

5. 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 would 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.

We still need to raise funding for the editing of our 'The Independence Documentary'

Together with our partners at CIBUK.Org, we've organised a TV-style documentary with a stellar line-up of well-known politicians and all kinds of interesting people, young and old, men and women, white and ethnic origin, presented by Alexandra Phillips.

Alex will be known to many readers as an ex-GB News presenter and a frequent sight on everything from Question Time to Talk TV.

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6. How did the teaching staff do out of Erasmus+?

Our analysis shows that the UK's pro-EU and anti-Brexit teaching staff who are so in favour of Erasmus+ 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.

To students and young people reading this

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.

It is early days for the Government's new Turing Scheme. We will apply our customary analysis to all of this, if we are still around to do so.

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.

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, Mon 24 July 2023

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Reader Comments 13

1. terence patrick hewett , Monday, July 24, 2023, 08:37:

For the EU collaborators, ERASMUS is a means of indoctrinating the young, just like the Hitler Youth. Just like old times.

2. LuxuryBalloon , Monday, July 24, 2023, 09:22:

1 terence Well said! The more we can prevent the young to go and visit the EU the better. It is good we have restricted them to 90 days max at a time as the young cannot handle all those freedoms.

3. Gazzablack , Monday, July 24, 2023, 09:37:

Lux is in for a rude weakening when they get round to cutting his umbilical cord, and the midwife smacks him on the backside.
Even worse when he realises his placenta is smarter than he is..

4. Apollo , Monday, July 24, 2023, 09:40:

We don't need re-energising, we need more education spending!
The grown ups could certainly do with daring to think differently.

5. Gazzablack , Monday, July 24, 2023, 10:13:

4, Appollo
We need to stop teachers telling pupils what to think, and get them to teach pupils how to think instead.
.

6. LuxuryBalloon , Monday, July 24, 2023, 10:19:

4 Apollo. Things go off the rail if EU-loving youngsters tell grown-ups to ‘think differently’.
Trust us, we know what is best for you.

7. Apollo , Monday, July 24, 2023, 13:26:

5. Gazzablack
Any teacher that is not in the job for the easy hours, high pay & laid back environment probably already does this.
If a student enters a science classroom, they can't be allowed to hijack the lesson for everyone else by wanting to discuss religion instead.
They should attend a religion class. I say this a baptised person myself. There is time & place for everything.
If anyone thinks their precious bundle of joy, should hold up the lesson just so they can repeat points arrived at with the help of their parents, then those type of parents are also part of the problem. If the source of contention is social media - then those parents are still at fault.
Social media use falls out of the purvey of teachers, that's a parenting job.
A teacher should have the right, esp. where younger people are concerned, purely for the efficient use of limited time &
attention spans to decide 'what' the focus of learning should be. This is guided by a curriculum - there is no personal agenda.
The 'what' is followed by 'how' ; 'when' should be the moment the lesson is underway.
At that point the student should be ready to listen. Object to your heart's content in your own time & place of
choosing but the classroom is hectic enough without subjective external interference -
least of all from "well-meaning" parents or political groups.
As someone in post-graduate study, I'm not sure what many people who oppose this think actually goes on in classrooms.
In my experience, if the needs of teachers & staff are sufficiently met, that in turn helps determine, to a significant extent,
the success or failure of those under their tutelage. All else is a distraction & a hinderance that would best be left outside of schools & academia.

8. Gazzablack , Monday, July 24, 2023, 17:54:

7, Apollo
I think you've just proved my point with that ramble.
.

9. Sparky , Monday, July 24, 2023, 19:01:

Unbelievable. Basically because majority of teachers seem to have voted remain you launch a ridiculous diatribe at them.
The UK has among the best universities in the world and a strong reputation that we should be proud of.
The value of foreign students to UK economy was £41.9bn in 20/21.
Over 148,000 foreign students came to UK from EU in 20/21 under the Erasmus+ scheme.
Before the UK left, EU students made up around 43% of foreign students.
The number of students from the EU Fell by 21.4% the following year. Well done Brexit.
BJ promised that UK would remain in Erasmus, another broken promise.

10. Apollo , Monday, July 24, 2023, 20:46:

8. Evidently, you have not set foot inside of a class in some time. I said nothing new, controversial or surprising to someone who has been to a learning institution. Try it sometime, you might learn something.
9. Shocking indeed. In all the time I have interacted with staff or teachers, we have never once discussed Brexit or politics at all, neither had any of us have to declare or share our personal, social or political leanings.
To no one's surprise, if you look at any U.S. news site right now, you'll definitely find stories just like this about De Santis or some other Republican attacking schools, teachers, libraries, banning books - it's a strategy.

13 comments, page 1 of 2

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