Recommendation 105

When asked what position of the UK Government would be if the European Commission changed its mind on Scottish participation in Erasmus+, Minister Stewart said: My point would be that Scotland would be paying twice: first for the Turing Scheme and then for Erasmus. I do not think it is a nationwide scheme, and I think we are at a very early stage with Turing. When the full benefit and the detail of it is there and comes into practice—of course, we also have the interruption at the moment with the covid situation. It is very difficult to assess one and the other when students are not able, under any scheme, to properly travel. Of course, Turing can be evaluated in the fullness of time and could evolve into something else, but the ambitions for it, I think, will both capture the benefits of Erasmus and extend them in the ways that I have indicated.236