Page 23 - ELG1810 Oct Issue 461

CLIL SPECIAL

Courtesy Anglolang

Minister Damian Hinds (right) promises European teachers at Anglolang that the UK will guarantee Erasmus+ fees for 2019.

UK guarantees Erasmus+

funding after Brexit

The British government has promised to underwrite UK Erasmus+ course
providers until December 2020 – but will it work? Matt Salusbury investigates

he next call for proposals for 2019 Erasmus+ courses opens in in which it crashes out of the EU come March 29 without such an
October, and earliest deadlines for applications are in January. agreement reached. The latest round of negotiations in Salzburg on
But what happens to the UK’s important market in these courses September 21 did not end well.
Tafter the UK formally leaves the EU on 29 March next year? This is important because guarantees to underwrite UK-based
The good news is that 2019 courses will still be funded. As long as an Erasmus+ courses came with a ‘subject to discussions with the EU
application for Erasmus+ funding has been approved by 29 March 2019, Commission’ condition.
everything should proceed as usual. In its guide to the latest call for proposals, the Commission has a
In fact, the UK government has promised to underwrite providers’ fees warning for British applicants: ‘If the UK withdraws from the EU during
for courses delivered in Britain up until the end of the current Erasmus+ the grant period without concluding an agreement with the EU ensuring
funding round, which finishes at the end of 2020. in particular that British applicants continue to be eligible, you will cease
In 2017 the UK government pledged to underwrite Erasmus+ funding to receive EU funding.’
for UK participants who submit applications ‘to study in other EU To make matters worse, the UK’s pledges to cover Erasmus+ costs
countries while we are still in the EU’. until late 2020 – even in the event of ‘no deal’ – are no guarantee at all.
In August this year, during a visit to British private language school, The Department for Education’s Technical Notice admit the need for
Anglolang, Education Secretary Damian Hinds told European teachers some sort of agreement, if only interim agency-to-agency accords cobbled
on an Erasmus+ course that fees to UK providers will also together between the UK’s national agency and others.
be underwritten. So far, the only progress the UK reports on Erasmus+ post-Brexit is
The British Council’s marketing consultant Sophie Cannon confirmed that it is ‘seeking to discuss’ it.
to the Gazette that the guarantee covers UK ‘participants that are English UK chief executive Sarah Cooper told the Gazette she could
only informed of their success’ of their application after the UK has ‘shed no more light than you have’ on Erasmus+. She added that
formally left. English UK ‘welcomes [the UK] government’s recent reassurance that
A government press release went further stating ‘funding will be it will continue post-Brexit and looks forward to hearing more explicit
available for UK institutions for projects which are agreed before 2020, plans as soon as possible, so that providers can plan beyond 2020’.
so they can continue with any Erasmus+ programmes they are involved Meanwhile in October and November this year Britain’s National
in where possible’. Agency for Erasmus+ is running events around the country for providers
However – and it’s a big ‘however’ – this all depends on the EU and wishing to find out more about plans for 2019.
the UK concluding an agreement on the latter’s ‘orderly withdrawal’
from the EU, an outcome beginning to look more uncertain. ■ Matt Salusbury is a freelance journalist and EAP lecturer. He worked for
The UK has started contingency planning for a ‘no deal’ scenario the Gazette for many years and will return as news editor in the next edition.

editorial@elgazette.com 23