Recommendation 92

On 28 December 2020 Richard Lochhead MSP, Scottish Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, expressed his “profound disappointment” at the UK Government’s decision to withdraw from the Erasmus.213 He described the move as “a huge blow”, said that the Scottish Government would explore “alternative options” and described the Turing Scheme as a “watered down and less well funded version of 207 Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows (USC0013) p 3 208 The Erasmus Programme, Briefing Paper 8326, House of Commons Library, 6 January 2021 209 “Why has the UK ditched participation in Erasmus+?”, University World News, 1 January 2021 210 Q142 211 “Academics call for Scotland to rejoin Erasmus amid criticism of UK’s ‘not fit for purpose’ alternative”, The London Economic, 23 March 2021 212 “Academics call for Scotland to rejoin Erasmus amid criticism of UK’s ‘not fit for purpose’ alternative”, The London Economic, 23 March 2021 213 “Erasmus loss ‘a huge blow’”, Scottish Government, 28 December 2020 38 Universities and Scotland Erasmus” as “it’s not even an exchange program because there is no support for visits to Scotland”.214 He reflected that students in Northern Ireland will however still to be given access to Erasmus+, due to their different EU exit arrangements.215