Brexit Britain’s new student programme beats EU’s by over 50% in year one

Government’s Turing Scheme will help 28,000 students, versus 18,000 under EU’s Erasmus+

Montage Facts4EU.Org 2021

Another Remain campaign myth is put to the sword by the blade of Brexit reality

Yesterday the Government announced more details of its new overseas study programme, the Turing Scheme, which will replace the EU’s expensive Erasmus+ programme this year. Facts4EU.Org analyses what it all means.

This report is about the new Turing Scheme
Tomorrow's report is about the EU's Erasmus programme
and why UK students might wish to re-consider their views on it.

What did the Department for Education announce?

A total of 40,000 students and pupils are set to study and work abroad under the new Turing student exchange programme, spanning 150 countries. 28,000 of these placements are designated for university students. The DfE sayS that this compares with 18,300 under the EU’s Erasmus+ scheme. (Facts4EU.Org disputes this figure and believes the numbers are even better – see below.) The total budget in the first academic year (2021-22) is £110m.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Dept for Education's figures for the Erasmus+ replacement

28,000 overseas placements for UK university students under UK's new Turing Scheme
18,300 overseas placements for UK students under EU's Erasmus programme

Source: UK Department for Education statement, 03 Aug 2021

Brexit Britain continues to go global

As part of the new global scheme, Australia, Canada, Japan and the United States are amongst over 150 international destinations where UK students will be funded to take up work and study placements – as well as EU countries like Germany and France.

The DfE said: “At the heart of the Government’s post-Brexit vision is an ambition to create a truly Global Britain where we learn, work and trade with countries well beyond Europe’s frontiers. The Turing Scheme, which has replaced the UK’s participation in Erasmus+, gives young people the opportunity to benefit from working and studying abroad, while boosting our ties with international partners in the process.”

The Remain campaign’s Project Fear has been proved wrong - again

The subject of Brexit denying students the right to study abroad came up many times during the Referendum campaign and in the years that followed. Here is one example, from the campaign arm for young people called ‘Our Future Our Choice’ (OFOC).

‘Our Future Our Choice’ (OFOC)
“The outcome will impact us the most: we are losing our rights to live, work and study anywhere in our continent.”
- ‘Our Future Our Choice’ website – a Remain campaign group

‘Our Future Our Choice’ was funded by Best for Britain, Open Britain, and The European Movement. This means that indirectly they received funding from the foreign billionaire George Soros.

The Turing Scheme will benefit UK students – we will no longer be paying for EU27 students

For years Facts4EU.Org has published reports on the EU’s Erasmus+ programme. We continually pointed out that twice as many EU27 students were benefiting from coming to the UK compared to UK students going to the EU. It appears that the funding of EU27 students will now stop under the Turing Scheme.

We also highlighted the fact that far more UK students went to the United States than to any EU country.

Finally, has Gavin Williamson got his sums wrong?

The statement from the Department for Education yesterday contained the following key section:-

“The total number of individual placements supported this year through the £110m scheme stands at over 40,000 – exceeding the Department for Education’s own estimates. This includes 28,000 placements for university students – compared with only 18,300 under Erasmus+ in the academic year 2018/9.”

Er, no. We cannot be sure without asking them today, but it appears that they have made the same mistake that so many Remainers have made. The figure for outgoing UK students under Erasmus+ in that year was in fact 9,993, according to the EU’s own official figures. It would appear that the Department for Education under Gavin Williamson has mistakenly included ‘trainees’ (work placements, apprentices, etc) in its total.

Adding in trainees takes the EU’s figure to 18,305. If the UK Government’s new scheme provides “28,000 placements for university students”, as they say, then they must compare this to the EU’s Erasmus figure for UK students, which is only 9,993. That would make the comparison chart look like this:-

Source: UK Department for Education statement, 03 Aug 2021, and official EU statistics for UK students in 2019
- the last year for which numbers are available.

Observations

Once again Brexit Britain has confounded its critics. To put in place a new student overseas study programme in the first full year of Brexit must be seen as an achievement.

Even if Gavin Williamson has got his sums wrong, the Government’s new Turing Scheme will involve substantially more students than under the EU’s Erasmus+ programme. One further advantage is that the UK will no longer be funding 18,000 EU students and 12,000 EU27 trainees each year. Naturally they are still welcome to come, but not at the British taxpayer’s expense.

Instead the UK Government will making available grants to worthy students from all around the world (including some from the EU of course), contributing to a continued, vibrant, higher education sector. Turning the United Kingdom once again into an exciting, globally outward-looking country is part of what Brexit was all about.

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[ Sources: EU Commission | Dept for Education ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Wed 04 Aug 2021

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Reader Comments 12

1. Carol , Wednesday, August 04, 2021, 07:58:

We should have always supported primarily our own students, I'm pleased to hear that now this is the case.

2. Harry Cason , Wednesday, August 04, 2021, 08:34:

It’s because Turing is about education and Erasmus is about indoctrination. Plus the EU can’t bear not to milk things like this for money.

3. Do You Wonder , Wednesday, August 04, 2021, 09:02:

Cynic that I am ("The truth is out there" but finding it is difficult!) the sentence ""A total of 40,000 students and pupils are set to study and work abroad "" is lacking definition.
What does 'are set' mean. Is that an ambition or reality? What are the 'signed up and going' figure please.

4. Harry Cason , Wednesday, August 04, 2021, 09:50:

Some academics have speculated that former Erasmus students will prove to be a powerful force in creating a pan-European identity. The political scientist Stefan Wolff, for example, has argued that "Give it 15, 20 or 25 years, and Europe will be run by leaders with a completely different socialisation from those of today", referring to the so-called 'Erasmus generation'.

5. Buster , Wednesday, August 04, 2021, 10:30:

This is b******s. [Edited by Facts4EU.Org - Please stop using bad language.] The Turing scheme is significantly inferior to Erasmus which has helped many thousands of students. The funding lower, the opportunities more limited. But I guess the bigoted pound shop fascists who hate the EU and all things foreign have to desperately pretend theirs is a global project. It isn’t. It is a project of ignorant extremists who just don’t like foreigners - and it has already failed.

6. Martyn Owers, Co. Durham , Wednesday, August 04, 2021, 10:56:

I love how Erasmus still continues to trigger Remainers so. It's like a red rag to a bull. In reality, there was barely any demand for Erasmus. In 2017, fewer than 10,000 UK students (out of 1.87 million) took part in the scheme - i.e. 99.49% didn't. However, like so many aspects of our EU membership, it benefited them twice as much as us, because almost 2 x EU students came to UK.
Back in the day, I had zero interest in going to Europe to study or learning a European language. I studied Mandarin and went to a Beijing university for a year. A pal went to the Middle-East and another to Japan. I'm glad the Turing scheme encompasses the whole world rather than just Europe.

7. Mike S , Wednesday, August 04, 2021, 11:46:

Buster, comment 5, you constantly bleat on about how British people appear to be racist towards foreigners but you are amongst the biggest & worst type of racist there is as you hate the very people with whom you come from! If you are so appalled by the British people who wish to leader's of our own destiny rather than be led by unaccountable unelected bureaucratic individuals who answer to no one, then why don't you just go & move over to the EU & have them pull your strings like the marionette puppet you appear to wish to be & let the UK & it's people forge out our own future, our own destiny. If you are not up for it then go & move to somewhere in the EU. They are welcome to have you!

8. Booster , Wednesday, August 04, 2021, 14:43:

Buster, Struggling to raise any valid arguments that contain some truth? Have no justifications for anything you say? Unfamiliar with discussions based on facts, data and analysis? Leaving discussions when you're clearly defeated? (Any answers yet to what you raised on Monday's article apart from "pair of balls"? No?) Prefer arguments based on insults using simple words? Congratulations, you're a true representative of rejoiners! :)

9. Do You Wonder , Wednesday, August 04, 2021, 16:58:

Do You Wonder 3
""40,000 students will be able to study and work abroad "" - an ambition not a fact.
Remember Lynx (?) Couriers strapline?
" A promise is nothing - until it's delivered"

10. Ams , Wednesday, August 04, 2021, 18:11:

Erasmus was poor value for the UK but, it helped smaller countries' students (eg Switzerland) afford a better &/or more Universities, than in their home country. Erasmus+ 2021-2027 budget is €26.2 billion, compared with €14.7 billion for 2014-2020... complemented by €2.2 billion from the EU’s external instruments (ec.europa.eu). That's £3.2bn/year (7 years at €1.17=£1) without external instruments.
UK contributed 11.4% as a total of EU contributions in 2019; UK's €14.05bn is minus UK rebate but not public sector receipts (Statista 19/1/21). So next 7 year's estimate would be £365 million/year for UK, up from £205m. I hope these numbers are matched in Turing funding, especially as many students have been stuck at home with online courses.
18-Feb-21 Politico: Erasmus students were almost replaced by fee-paying international students (mainly USA), as EU students applying for undergraduate courses at British HE institutions dropped from 43,030 to 26,010; Irish students treated as home students & UCAS show that applicants from Ireland increased 26%, to 4,850.
Alas, Universities would miss Erasmus students esp. for language & the Arts (good STEM courses are still oversubscribed) + the international flavour it gave to campus & more student contacts. The more Turing reciprocates worldwide, then the more students will come from non-English countries.

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