Hungarian student organisation to prepare a new EU-UK scholarship programme
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Student organisations have started a campaign to set up a new EU student exchange programme, and their petition can be submitted to the European Parliament in a matter of weeks. According to students standing behind the Save EU Students campaign, tens of thousands of people have lost the possibility to travel and study in the United Kingdom with the help of an Erasmus scholarship because, due to Brexit, doubling tuition fees can only be paid by the richest.
“The perfect solution would be an EU monetary fund covering the costs of a complete course for the talented kids with a more humble background who would like to study in the UK; nevertheless, saving the possibility of a study abroad scholarship would already be a huge step. Our goal is to create a new agreement on an exchange programme between the EU and the UK that would balance out the gap left behind the Erasmus+ programme,” told eduline.hu Dénes András Nagy, the advisor to the Save EU Students campaign.
The initiative was launched by the Federation of Polish Student Societies in the UK, an organisation working for the interest of Polish students studying in the country. They were joined by the Hungarian Youth Association that gathers smaller communities of Hungarian students attending a British university.
They are all of the opinion that due to the consequences of Brexit, in the future, the question of whether someone will be able to attend a university in the UK will solely be based on the economic situation of the student.
The Minister of State for Universities of the United Kingdom announced last June that starting from the 2021/2022 academic year, first-year students arriving from an EU country will not be able to take out a British student loan; furthermore, they will not be eligible for a tuition fee discount either. This latter fact means that instead of the old so-called “home fee” of 9,000-9,250 pounds a year, students will have to pay a much higher amount (10-26 thousand pounds a year) in the case of a BSc or BA. Moreover, as opposed to a previous decision, concluding someone’s studies in a Scottish university will not be free either. December bought other sad news with the decision of the British government to abandon the Erasmus programme after 33 years, after not being able to reach an agreement with the EU concerning the future.
In the UK, from September 2021 the Erasmus + scheme is being replaced by the Turing Scheme, named after the famous British WW2 code breaker. This scheme is intended to fund the mobility of 35,000 students for placements and exchanges. However, because the Turing Scheme is designed to be international and not limited to the EU, the UK Government has said that the reciprocality arrangements must be made in bi-lateral agreements on a country by country basis with their higher education establishments. In other words, Hungarians will be able to participate in the Turing scheme and to study in the UK if the Hungarian government and Hungarian Universities choose to join the scheme. The ball is in the Hungarian’s court, so to speak. It is worth noting that as with all other EU students wishing to study in the UK, Hungarian students will no longer be eligible for UK government Student Loans to pay the tuition fees (currently up to appx 3.7 million huf (9,250 GBP) and will need to arrange such loans if required at national level.