CARDIFF - Wales have announced a new programme that will allow Welsh university students to go on Erasmus exchanges, even with the UK out of the EU.

  Following Prime Minister Boris Johnson vetoing the continuation of the Erasmus programme throughout the UK, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford said, “it is fundamental to broaden our horizons, to make sure that our students can always improve themselves, and bring the benefits to communities in Wales, and to the future of new generations, in order to maintain our link with Europe.”

  Drakeford has allocated 65 million pounds (around 73 million euros) to fund the programme, which doesn’t yet have an official name.

  It differs from the Turing Programme, the UK’s answer to the Erasmus scheme post-Brexit, in that it is a true exchange programme, involving both Welsh students and their European counterparts. The Turing Programme just involves the British students working or studying abroad.

  It is not only Wales that has found some way around the UK’s decision to cease involvement in Erasmus. 

  The government of Ireland decided at the end of 2020 to finance students at university in Northern Ireland, part of the UK, to continue with their Erasmus scheme, still being part of the European Union. Ireland’s Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris said that it is “a very practical example of us wanting to continue to collaborate with Northern Ireland post-Brexit.” It will be a “permanent commitment” as long as Northern Irish students want to make use of it. Harris continued, “The cost is relatively low … But it’s not a cost, it’s an investment.”

  Scotland have also tried to keep Erasmus alive in Scottish universities, but the EU blocked their attempts as they don’t have the same separate legal status as Northern Ireland. It is likely that Scotland will now try to engineer a similar scheme to Wales.

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