The UK will rejoin Erasmus+ in 2027 after a post-Brexit break, restoring key mobility and cooperation opportunities across Europe.
The United Kingdom (UK) is officially returning to the Erasmus+ family in the year 2027. The decision, signed on 15 April 2026, amends the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) and restores the UK’s formal association with Erasmus+.
As one of the founding member countries when the programme was launched in 1987, the UK substantially participated in Erasmus in the past. In 2018, for example, it ranked as the 6th highest participating country, attracting students and staff thanks to the English language and its strong research-oriented universities. In the context of Brexit in 2020, however, the UK and the European Commission did not find an agreement on Erasmus+, which led to the UK remaining outside the current programme generation 2021-2027. In the meantime, replacement schemes were developed and implemented, most notably the UK Turing Scheme, funding study and work placements worldwide, as well as the Welsh Taith scheme, set up in 2022. While these parallel structures were put in place to build upon the opportunities lost when the UK was not in Erasmus+, their funding volume has notably been much lower. These national programmes further allowed the UK to set their own priorities, such as the inclusion of disadvantaged groups.
At the same time, Erasmus+ participation did not fully come to a halt. The UK is a ‘region 14’ country, together with Switzerland and the Faroe Islands, in the current programme period. While mobility between programme countries and third countries of this category generally fall under international credit mobility, cooperation activities typically exclude category 14 countries from being coordinators or beneficiaries of the programme. This means that in most cases, participation in cooperation activities is limited to the role of associated, and thereby self-funded, partner. The UK’s participation has thus been minimal and highly constrained, although participation in the European University Initiative, for instance, has been taken up by several UK universities through associated, self-funded partnership.
In the last few years, initially cooled relations between the EU and the UK post-Brexit slowly seemed to warm, with the UK’s association to Horizon Europe in 2024. First signals that the UK would also re-join Erasmus came in May 2025, when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the EU and UK would work on a deal for Erasmus+ association. Since then, negotiations had been underway, ultimately securing a fair and balanced approach for both sides this April. The UK is expected to contribute close to £570 million for the year 2027, a calculation that mainly takes into account GDP and corrects for imbalances through participation patterns, geographical location and country size, and which includes a 30% rebate, the same rebate as the Swiss association agreement.
Preparations for 2027 are already underway: The UK has designated the British Council as the national Erasmus+ agency. This is a role which the organisation is already familiar with: Under the previous arrangement, the British Council handled higher education exchanges in partnership with Ecorys, whereas it will now assume full responsibility. Negotiations between the UK and the EU will continue, given that current association is only valid for the final year of the current programme period, 2027. Under the next multiannual financial framework, participation will again have to be renegotiated.
News of the UK’s return has been enthusiastically received by the education community. Many associations and stakeholder bodies welcomed the decision, which is expected to make the UK once more an attractive destination for incoming students and staff, while granting UK participants renewed access to opportunities across Europe.