The UK currently has similar arrangements with 13 other countries (including Australia, New Zealand and Canada). These schemes provide invaluable opportunities to young people and have had significant successes, indicated by the recent expansion of programmes with Australia, Canada, Japan and South Korea. So, what is stopping Keir Starmer from negotiating a similar scheme with the EU?
Under this proposed scheme, international students from the EU would pay equivalent fees to home students, removing a significant and vital source of income from already under-funded universities.
One concern relates to universities, which currently rely heavily on funding from the fees paid by international students which are not capped in the same way as fees for home students are. For example, I study Combined Honours, and for the same course international students will pay £23,800 per year from the next academic year, more than double the £9,250 home students currently pay. This difference is even greater for more resource intense courses; medicine, for example, will cost £44,500 per year for international students. Under this proposed scheme, international students from the EU would pay equivalent fees to home students, removing a significant and vital source of income from already under-funded universities. It is therefore possible that fees for home students would need to be raised even higher than is currently anticipated to compensate for this loss in funding, in order to continue providing the same quality education that we expect from our universities.
However, this does not consider the arguably priceless benefits of the experience of living and working abroad. Young people become entirely immersed in the culture and practices of another society, something which can only be positive in broadening their horizons. Furthermore, in an increasingly competitive job market, experience of living, studying or working abroad provides a unique opportunity for graduates to set themselves apart.
Though, as the scheme can only be open to a relatively select few young people across the country, this raises the question of whether these obvious benefits to the few justify the potential costs to the many in the form of increased university fees.
Rishi Sunak’s Tory government declined to negotiate an initial proposal in April, on the grounds that “free movement within the EU was ended and there are no plans to introduce it.” However, ahead of Keir Starmer’s recent visit to Brussels to meet with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the EU indicated a compromise on the proposal, decreasing the time young people would be allowed to freely travel to just a year, in place of the four previously suggested.
While the outcomes of the meeting between Starmer and von der Leyen do not explicitly mention the scheme, agreements to hold more regular EU-UK summits provide the possibility for developments in discussions towards the scheme.
