The United Kingdom was once a popular destination for academic exchanges among students in Flanders but in recent years, the number of students crossing the Channel from Belgium has dropped.
The number of students travelling to the UK on exchange has fallen 44% compared to pre-Brexit levels, Flemish Education Minister Ben Weyts (N-VA) said in response to a question from Brecht Warnez (CD&V).
In the academic year starting in September 2018 and ending in the summer of 2019, a total of 770 students travelled to the UK to study for a semester or a year. In 2021-2022, this figure had almost halved, down to 436.
The figures show that college students in particular (such as those doing more technical qualifications) are migrating less to the UK. Among university students, the drop was limited to 6%.
Major cost increase
The 2016 referendum in which the UK voted to leave the EU didn't initially give clarity on the future of EU students; it wasn't until the details of the exit were decided that the UK withdrew from the bloc's Erasmus+ exchange programme, which helps organise student and doctoral candidate exchanges to and from participating Erasmus+ countries.
Students going on exchange under this exchange programme pay the tuition fees at their home university, which for a bachelor's degree in Flanders usually amounts to no more than €2,000. In England meanwhile, tuition fees are significantly higher and frequently rise to £9,250 per year (€10,550). This is without including any of the often high costs also incurred by being a student.
The UK government eventually announced that it would no longer participate.
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Since then, EU students can no longer enjoy reduced fees and, if going to the UK on an exchange, must sometimes face having to pay up to £20,000. At the same time, British students coming to study in Flanders have to pay less.
Warnez, who posed the question to Weyts, argued that this is unfair.
"The minister urgently needs to consult with his British colleague," he said. "There is an imbalance when British students benefit from our affordable education while our students have to pay tens of thousands of euros for education at their universities."
