I NOTE with interest that the Welsh Government is to establish its own version of the Erasmus education exchange programme and would urge the Scottish Government to do likewise.
With Brexit, the UK Government has withdrawn from the EU’s highly successful Erasmus scheme, which offered student exchanges as well as school links and work experience.
The UK Government’s replacement, the Turing Scheme, includes a fraction of the benefits provided to students under Erasmus. Free tuition and travel expenses have been scrapped, except for the most disadvantaged students, and the cost-of-living allowance has been slashed by a fifth.
READ MORE: Pro-EU group urges Scotland to follow Wales with our own version of Erasmus scheme
In addition, the Turing Scheme does not extend to staff exchanges and funding will also not be reciprocal, meaning that international partner institutions will not be supported for any exchanges coming to the UK.
By contrast, the Welsh Government said its scheme would support, as far as possible, the entire range of activities that had been available to learners in Wales under Erasmus. It will fill in many of the gaps – including, crucially, the commitment to long-term funding, the retention of the principle of two-way exchanges and the inclusion of youth work.
The loss of Erasmus is an act of cultural vandalism, but the Scottish Government has the opportunity to follow Wales and deliver a scheme that delivers to some extent the benefits of the Erasmus programme.
Alex Orr
Edinburgh
CAN anyone tell me how the Scottish Conservative Party and the Scottish Labour Party can stand in the May election, given there are no such parties registered with the Electoral Commission?
It was my belief you had to be registered, the Labour Party and The Conservative and Unionist Party are listed, but not the supposedly separate Scottish versions.
Allan Jaap
via email
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