With no UK funding guarantees, English language learners are heading to Ireland – while their British counterparts are left in limbo

When Julia Quirós Rodríguez, from Cadiz, in Spain, dreamed about doing a student exchange under the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme she always imagined coming to the UK. But her university warned her off Brexit Britain, and she is studying at the University of Galway, in Ireland, instead.

Last year Rodríguez had to choose eight European universities where she would like to do her Erasmus+ exchange. As she is studying English, her choices were all in Britain. However, her university asked her to change her options because, like many EU universities, it feared being left to pay high student fees if Britain were shut out of the scheme, post-Brexit.

“They said it was too much of a risk planning to go to the UK not knowing what is going to happen with Brexit,” she says. “Economically and academically it is a big risk for our universities. If the Erasmus agreement is broken, what happens then?”

Rodríguez says Erasmus “has always been my dream” – her uncle was one of the first Spanish students to benefit from the scheme when it launched more than 30 years ago.

When she arrived in Ireland, she admits, she found it overwhelming, not least because she couldn’t understand the Irish accent. But she has made good friends, improved her English, and describes it as a “great experience”.

“I think the UK should definitely fight for Erasmus,” she says.

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But many fear there is no appetite for such a fight in the UK, with a Liberal Democrat-backed amendment to the withdrawal agreement bill requiring the government to seek continued participation in Erasmus+ being defeated by Conservative MPs earlier this month.

Boris Johnson, pushed in prime minister’s questions, said there was “no threat” to the scheme. “UK students will continue to be able to enjoy the benefits of exchanges with our European friends and partners,” he told MPs. However, many remain fearful about the future of Erasmus, which is known to have few supporters in the Treasury and is expected to be a long way from the top of the negotiating list with the EU.

Vivienne Stern, director of the international arm of Universities UK (UUK), the vice-chancellors’ body, describes the prime minister’s statement as “very encouraging” but says: “It was not clear whether the PM was talking about us continuing to participate in this programme, or whether we would seek association to the next programme starting in January 2021. And then, of course, it is going to be a subject for negotiation.”

Students of any subject can do an Erasmus year, but it is language departments, many of which are already struggling to attract enough students, that have most to lose.

Marion Schmidt, professor of French literature and film at Edinburgh University and president of the association of university professors and heads of French, says being barred from Erasmus would be “absolutely disastrous” for her subject. “We are in limbo. The current second-year students know they can go abroad on Erasmus+ next year, but beyond that we don’t know and it is causing a lot of anxiety on campus.”

Schmidt realised at a meeting with French universities last year that Brexit was already harming student exchange. “Some partner institutions were saying that they were stopping sending new students to the UK because of the uncertainty. A lot of institutions are worried that they might be left footing the bill for fees at British universities.”

Faced with declining demand, seven universities have stopped offering modern language degrees in the past year, and more than 50 have cut courses or closed departments since 2000, according to the University Council of Modern Languages (UCML).

Spending a year abroad - teaching, studying or working as an intern – is a compulsory part of most modern language degrees in the UK, and a big reason why many students choose to study a language in the first place. Universities say Erasmus+ makes that year straightforward, providing generous living grants with top-ups for poorer students, a simple application process, and the guarantee that credits earned on their exchange would be recognised by their home university.

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UCML says some UK universities have made financial guarantees to reassure worried students as well as European partners. For instance, Newcastle University has earmarked £1.4m to underwrite Erasmus+ exchanges for the 400 students who will study abroad during the 2020-21 academic year, and says it will continue to receive European students in that year whatever happens politically. But many others have no safety net.

Claire Gorrara, professor of French studies at Cardiff University and chair of the UCML, says: “We can’t run a language degree and say to students, ‘You will have to make up for all the support previously on offer through the Erasmus+ programme to pay for the costs of going abroad. That would be a massive blow for language degrees. And it would have a major impact on equity of access to these courses.”

She says language degrees are already in a “bad place”. Between 2010-2011 and 2016-2017, student numbers for Italian degrees declined by 63%, French by 45%, and German by 43%, according to new research by the Higher Education Policy Institute thinktank.

Gorrara believes this stems from a negative attitude to languages in the UK that must be challenged “urgently”.

Erasmus+ sends around 16,000 UK students to more than 30 countries each year. Those who study abroad outperform their peers in both the classroom and the job market, according to research by Universities UK. They are 19% more likely to get a first and 20% less likely to be unemployed.

Paul Craig, a management consultant from Shropshire, whose daughter is studying Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies and is planning to study in Portugal under Erasmus, says: “It’s the uncertainty that’s the killer. It’s an unnecessary stress on students and parents.

“If the government is going to use Erasmus as an EU negotiating point that is pretty low. This is a fantastic scheme that has benefited thousands over decades.”

Stern, of UUK, says Britain does see a net return on its investment in Erasmus when you consider incoming students’ spending, but she warns that if the Treasury is making “a narrow judgment of Erasmus on the basis of money in and money out” it is “missing the point”. “Taking part in Erasmus gives students new skills that are valuable to employers and that boosts our economy.”