Academic mobility after Brexit: Erasmus and the UK post-2020

Abstract

ABSTRACT Universities in the UK share the long common history of cooperation and mobility with the other European universities and are indispensable contributors to the European history of ideas. However, the Brexit substantially changes the established ways of cooperation in the framework of the EU’s main education programme Erasmus+. How will academic mobility and cooperation develop under the new circumstances, what are the options for both sides to continue the close cooperation, so far embedded in the framework of the European Higher Education Area? And what are the UK’s possibilities in terms of further participating in the Erasmus+ programme versus establishing a national support scheme for British and (foreign?) students to further promote the exchange of students? The article aims at analysing the political positions in the UK and to sketch out the different options for the UK and the EU (member states) to continue the existing cooperation after the Brexit allowing for the mobility of students, teachers and researchers also in the future. This article reflects the private opinion of the author and is not to be understood as the official position of the European Commission.