Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to negotiate association to the next Erasmus programme starting in 2021.

The government firmly believes that the UK and European countries should continue to give young people and students the chance to benefit from each other’s world-leading universities following our exit from the European Union.

The next generation of EU programmes are currently being discussed in the EU. This includes the proposed regulation for the 2021-27 Erasmus+ programme, which has reached a partial general approach in the Council of the European Union.

We will continue to participate in discussions on the draft regulation while we remain an EU Member State. Of course, the text of the regulation has not been finalised, including important aspects such as the terms of third-country participation, and we will need to consider the regulation as a whole.

Ultimately, any decisions about our participation in the next Erasmus+ programme will also be a matter for wider negotiations about our future relationship with the EU.