UK rejoins Erasmus+ student exchange from 1 January 2027, applications open in November

What the government confirmed

The UK government confirmed on Tuesday, 27 October 2026, that Britain will rejoin the Erasmus+ student exchange programme from 1 January 2027. Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer told the Commons that young Britons will be able to apply from November to study, train or gain work experience in the European Union. The scheme is not limited to university students, because further education students, apprentices, adult learners, school groups, sports coaches and education staff can also take part. Falconer urged MPs across the House to work with the British Council so that their institutions get involved.

Falconer put it this way in Parliament:

“Applications open this November. They are not simply for undergraduate university students. They are for educational institutions of all kinds.”

Background to the decision

The UK left Erasmus+ under the Brexit agreement of 2020, when then prime minister Boris Johnson argued the programme did not offer value for money. The Turing Scheme replaced it, and it was ended once the government announced the new arrangement with the EU. The return was first announced as part of the post-Brexit reset deal with Brussels in 2025, under former prime minister Keir Starmer. The decision traces back to a UK-EU summit in May, and an agreement was reached in December. The government had previously said it expects more than 100,000 people to benefit, and it has noted that disadvantaged students tend to gain a lot from taking part. London had also indicated that it would pay roughly £570 million (€648 million) to take part in the 2027-2028 academic year.

A wider debate on EU ties

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has also put closer ties with the EU back on the agenda. On Monday, 26 October, he said he wanted Britain to rejoin the EU "in my lifetime", a remark that Downing Street later called a personal view rather than government policy. He told ITV's Good Morning Britain that the UK had received a harder Brexit than the referendum campaign proposed. His comments have split Labour MPs, while opposition politicians have been sharply critical. Burnham has also called for an honest discussion about returning to free movement with the EU.

Burnham has tried to limit expectations on timing, saying:

“I'm not proposing rejoining in this Parliament.”

Free movement and the economic case

Robert Jenrick, who has defected to Reform UK, told the BBC's Sunday programme that Burnham is proposing to open the borders, arguing it would undercut British wages and add pressure on housing and the NHS. Goldman Sachs thinks closer ties with the EU could notably cut the cost of Brexit, and estimates that a customs union would lift GDP by about 1 per cent, or roughly £30bn. Data from the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford shows London saw a 10 per cent drop in EU employment between June 2019 and June 2021. The drop in hospitality workers in the capital was just under 30 per cent over the same period. Researcher Ben Brindle said sectors with many low-skilled jobs, such as hospitality and transport, would benefit most from a larger labour pool to recruit from.