Lords challenge UK government over Erasmus funding rise

By David Jobbins. A House of Lords committee has urged the UK government to think again over its reluctance to support a European Commission proposal for a 70% hike in funding for the new Erasmus for All programme, which will support student mobility beyond Europe's borders.
The multi-party Social Policies and Consumer Protection EU Sub-Committee, in a toughly worded report on student mobility issued this week, backed the commission’s intention to integrate the existing EU funding programmes for education, training, youth and sport into a single, unified programme.
Many of the witnesses from whom the sub-committee heard evidence during its inquiry had supported the proposed funding increase, says the report, The Modernisation of Higher Education in Europe.

“While the British Council speculated that the increase could hypothetically result in a doubling of student mobility funding for the United Kingdom, the Minister [David Willetts] stood alone in opposing the proposed 70% funding increase for Erasmus for All as being 'completely unrealistic'.
“The minister was not, at that stage, in a position to tell us if the government intended to support any budget increase for this proposal during the negotiations.
“We note the government’s opposition to the Commission’s preferred funding increase for Erasmus for All but reiterate our view that this programme merits a proportionately larger allocation under the next multi-annual financial framework.”
The committee noted that the UK’s attractiveness for students from other parts of Europe and beyond in order to hone their English language skills was coming under increasing competition from Continental universities – many of which now provide courses in English with sometimes significantly cheaper fees than in the UK.
“The government should remain vigilant about any factors that could undermine the higher education sector’s competitive position, including recent domestic reforms.”
Outward mobility from comparator countries such as France, Germany and Spain is still approximately three times that of the UK, the report says. As a result, the UK is a substantial net receiver of Erasmus students from elsewhere in the European Union. The committee urged the government and universities to do more to tackle the barrier to mobility in the UK.
It acknowledged that the 'monoglot culture' prevailing in Britain has discouraged its students from engaging in mobility schemes such as Erasmus to the same degree as other countries.
“Coupled with financial, socio-economic and cultural barriers, increased participation in future cannot be assured,” the committee warned.
“We therefore urge the government to overcome the UK’s lack of mobility culture by making language learning compulsory in primary and secondary school, ensuring the continuation of the fee waiver scheme and supporting the development of the proposed masters-level student loan guarantee facility, both of which will aid more disadvantaged students in particular.”
The committee called on the government to support a proposal at the forthcoming Bologna ministerial conference in Bucharest on 26-27 April that each Bologna country should adopt a mobility strategy.
It expressed regret that the government’s June 2011 White Paper on Higher Education made no reference at all to Europe, “despite the clear importance of initiatives such as the Bologna process to universities in the UK".
The committee’s chair, Baroness Young of Hornsey (pictured), said: “The UK’s participation [in Erasmus] has been historically low compared to other large member states. Making language learning compulsory in both primary and secondary school would be one way of increasing the UK’s participation in addition to taking steps to ensure a more diverse range of participants.
“The government must place higher education at the heart of their growth agenda in order to maintain and contribute to the economic and social wealth of the UK and Europe as a whole.
“In the immediate few months, this will require the government to negotiate ambitiously to allocate a greater proportion of the long-term EU budget to research, innovation and education, including the Erasmus programme.”