The UK will rejoin the EU’s Erasmus+ student exchange programme on 1 January 2027, Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer told MPs on 27 October.
Applications will open in November for students, apprentices, school groups, adult learners and education professionals to study, train or gain work experience across Europe. Falconer said the scheme would cover “educational institutions of all kinds,” not just universities, and urged MPs to work with the British Council to encourage participation.
The return follows a post-Brexit reset agreed under Prime Minister Keir Starmer in 2025. The UK left Erasmus+ in 2020 under Boris Johnson, who argued it did not represent value for money, and replaced it with the Turing Scheme. The government has estimated that more than 100,000 people could benefit from the renewed arrangement.
Erasmus+ supports exchanges in education, training, youth and sport, and includes opportunities for staff training and job shadowing. The programme aims to widen access, particularly for disadvantaged students, and to foster partnerships between institutions. Falconer’s announcement came in response to Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan, who said young people had been “deprived of opportunity” since Brexit.
The UK’s reassociation was confirmed by British authorities on 27 October, seven years after its departure from the programme. Norway has participated in Erasmus+ since 1992.
