Students may still finish Erasmus exchange in case of hard Brexit

Participants of the Erasmus+ programme should not become the victims of a hard Brexit, in which the Brits will leave the European Union without a deal, the European Commission said in January. Its proposal: everyone who went on exchange through Erasmus before the Brexit date can finish their programmes and will keep their credits. After the European Parliament, the European Council has also agreed to the proposal this week.

Currently, fourteen thousand students and teachers from the 27 member states are participating in an Erasmus+ programme in the United Kingdom, and there are seven thousand British students on exchange in Europe. Before, the fear was that in case of a hard Brexit, they’d have to quit their exchange prematurely, but that worry has now been relieved.

High tuition fee
For the current British degree students who aren’t here on exchange, nothing will change. But if they come to the Netherlands after a hard Brexit, they’ll be seen as non-EEA citizens. They’ll have to pay the higher tuition fees, and will not receive any study financing. This past academic year, 3,109 British students were studying at Dutch universities and universities of applied sciences.

Next week, the British parliament will vote for the third time about the agreement proposed by prime minister May and the European Union. If the agreement is accepted, Brexit will happen on May 22. If not, May will have until April 12 to present an alternative plan. If that doesn’t happen, the United Kingdom will leave the EU without a deal.