ACUP statement on Brexit and the Erasmus programme
Given the doubts being generated around the participation of British universities in the Erasmus+ programme from the moment when Brexit takes effect, ACUP wishes to report on the current situation and possible future scenarios
The organizations and administrations in charge of higher education are in continuous contact both in Catalonia and in Spain and internationally to share information and actions to be taken. In this sense, the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia (CIC) gathered information on the positioning of Catalan universities, and CRUE Spanish Universities is in contact with the Spanish Government, the Spanish Services for the Internationalization of Education (SEPIE, Eerasmus Agency of Spain), Universities UK (UUK), the European University Association (EUA) and representatives of the European Commission, to monitor the situation systematically.
On March 14, CRUE will be holding a one-day workshop to look at this issue, which will offer a chance to share the latest available information and coordinate possible actions that may be derived from it
Given the doubts being generated around the participation of British universities in the Erasmus+ programme from the moment when Brexit takes effect, ACUP wishes to report on the current situation and possible future scenarios
The organizations and administrations in charge of higher education are in continuous contact both in Catalonia and in Spain and internationally to share information and actions to be taken. In this sense, the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia (CIC) gathered information on the positioning of Catalan universities, and CRUE Spanish Universities is in contact with the Spanish Government, the Spanish Services for the Internationalization of Education (SEPIE, Eerasmus Agency of Spain), Universities UK (UUK), the European University Association (EUA) and representatives of the European Commission, to monitor the situation systematically.
On March 14, CRUE will be holding a one-day workshop to look at this issue, which will offer a chance to share the latest available information and coordinate possible actions that may be derived from it
The situations that can occur are the following:
1 Departurewith EU agreement. If an agreement is reached between the United Kingdom and the EU, there could be two possible scenarios so far:
- The first is for British universities to continue taking part in the Erasmus+ program until the academic year 2020/2021. After that, their participation can be subject to negotiation.
- -The second is for the United Kingdom to take part in the programme as a non-EU member, which already happens for some counties and is regulated with the corresponding agreements -which would be necessary to guarantee the continuity of participation of the British universities in the European calls for this program.
2 Departure without EU agreement. . If the parts do not reach an agreement, there would be two possible scenarios as well:
- On the one hand, reaching partial agreements to take part in the Erasmus+ programme until the end of the 2019 programme.
- On the other hand, no agreement of any kind would imply the immediate departure of the United Kingdom. In this case, there would be two questions to take into account:
• The European Commission announced on 30 January 2019 that any student mobility that began before March 29 could be completed in full and would be eligible for funding from the EU itself.
• If there is no agreement in this regard, the European Commission would not deem ERASMUS agreements valid and would stop funding the current call (2019), which would affect any students who applied for mobility in the 2019-2020 academic year.
Given the uncertainty of the situation and the likelihood of shifts and changes during the negotiation process and in the position of the parties, as well as their effects or results, the Catalan public universities believe it would be wise to wait until March 29 (the date set for Brexit), in order to have more reliable data to take decisions. At the same time, government teams are studying possible contingency measures that would need to be applied in the event of non-agreement scenarios, should they be necessary. Finally, the Catalan public universities are in permanent contact with the international administrations and organisations of which they are members, and pledge that they will inform students and all other affected groups in a clear, transparent and permanently updated manner.