Parliament calls for full Swiss re-entry into Erasmus+ by 2021

The Swiss parliament has renewed funding for the temporary solution allowing students to participate in the Europe-wide Erasmus+ exchange programme. In 2021, when the fix runs out, Switzerland should aim to reintegrate the scheme fully, it said.

After the Senate, the House of Representatives approved on Monday the next round of funding: CHF114.5 million ($116.5 million) to aid Swiss third-level students in spending study and training spells elsewhere in Europe from 2018-2020.

However, parliamentarians were keen to stress that the current institutional arrangement – a stop-gap agreement in place since the EU froze Swiss participation in Erasmus after the anti-immigration vote of 2014 – should not linger longer.

+ Why Switzerland was ejected from the Erasmus programme in 2014

+ What the interim solution entails

+ What is Erasmus and how do Swiss students benefit?

As well as approving the funding, therefore, parliament also adopted a motion by 109 votes to 80 demanding that the government re-open talks with Brussels as soon as possible to find a permanent solution, ideally by reintegrating the Erasmus+ programme (or its successor) in 2021.

More haste?

This follows an August petition by the Swiss Student’s Union in which it demanded that the country fully reintegrate the scheme in 2018. The current Swiss-organised solution reduces student mobility and is an administrative burden for universities, campaigners said.

Following Monday’s vote in Bern, however, education minister Johann Schneider-Ammann called for patience, saying that any negotiations regarding re-entry will not start before 2020.

He also said that under the EU’s terms, in which national contributions to the scheme are calculated according to a percentage of GDP, becoming a full member of Erasmus+ would cost Switzerland more than the current solution.