The UK / EU Youth Experience Scheme (YES); Restoring Lost Opportunities for our Young People
With the news that the next UK / EU Summit is due to take place on 20th November, negotiations to get the proposed UK / EU Youth Experience Scheme (YES) finally agreed are at a critical point.
The announcement by the UK government and EU of their agreement in principle to establish a Youth Mobility Scheme following their May 2025 summit was welcomed with widespread optimism. The key principle agreed was that the scheme would enable young people in the 18 – 30 age group in the UK and EU to live and study or work for fixed periods of time in each other’s countries.
Over the past 18 months however, the details of the scheme have been the subject of torturous negotiations over 2 main issues; disagreement over the UK’s insistence that there should be a ‘cap’ on the numbers of young people coming from the EU and the request from the EU that their citizens should not be charged university fees higher than they would be in their home countries. Earlier in the summer it appeared that agreement was close on both of these issues, but alarm bells have started to ring in the last couple of weeks with press reports that the YES scheme may be delayed to ensure the ‘success’ of the November summit with a decision being deferred until May 2027. The Guardian on 23rd October reported that “EU Ambassadors in Brussels heard that the UK was still insisting on international tuition fees, quotas and an NHS surcharge for EU students. This has fuelled fears the summit could fail, just as the prime minister is promising to unveil a new vision for Britain’s long-term relationship with the EU”.
The Background
Before the UK left the EU in 2020 young people had the automatic right to live, study and work in each other’s countries without age limits or time limits and stays and EU students could study in the UK paying the same as ‘home’ students. This ended with Brexit, but the UK continued to run a Youth Mobility scheme with 13 non-EU countries ranging from Canada, Australia and New Zealand to Japan, Iceland and San Marino. This scheme has a time limit of up to 2 years per visit, requires participants to have at least £2,500 in savings and to pay current UK international student fees. In 2024, 68,500 young people from the UK travelled using this scheme whilst 24,400 young people came to the UK; this apparently delighted the Home Office who were able to claim a net minus migration of 44,000.
The current government appears to be trying to base the new scheme on this existing programme and partly on the recommendations of the UK / EU Youth Experience Scheme (YES) report published by the cross party UK Trade and Business Commission (UKTBC) in December 2025. This recommended that visas should be awarded for a maximum of 2 years and that the number of annual EU participants should be capped at 44,000 “to create the necessary ‘headroom’ for the UK Government to agree a Youth Experience Scheme with the EU in line with its manifesto to reduce net migration to the UK”. These proposals on limiting numbers of participants reflected the government’s sensitivity to accusations that the new scheme involves an intention to reintroduce free movement through the ‘back door’ and increase immigration. However, the young people benefitting from the proposed scheme will be on time limited visas which means that this is NOT free movement and there is no reason at all that they should be counted as immigrants, just as international students generally shouldn’t be counted either. The scheme is in any case reciprocal with incoming and outgoing participants cancelling each other out. To maximise opportunities for young people the EU has instead suggested monitoring numbers with an option for an ‘emergency brake’ which seems eminently preferable to an arbitrary cap in numbers.
The report was decidedly ambiguous on the international student fees issue arguing that “Continuing to charge EU students international fees …… will not set new precedents and not add to the financial woes of UK universities. At the same time however, it would likely to continue to drive the downward trend in the number of EU students coming to the UK to obtain a degree and further reduce the UK’s soft power and standing on the world stage” meaning that they would remain at existing levels. Universities have voiced concern that the EU request for EU students studying in the UK under the new scheme to pay the same fees as ‘home’ students will result in a debilitating loss of income for universities which have been charging EU students fees of up to £38,000 per year ( and more in some cases) since Brexit. Whilst this concern is understandable, this bonus income has only been available to them in the 6years since Brexit and for the previous 60 years EU and UK students had the same opportunities to study in each other’s countries on a ‘home student’ fee basis. UK universities are now charging fees which are among the highest in the world, with income from foreign students being effectively used to compensate for declining sources of income from other sources due to issues such as the growing costs to students of full-time undergraduate degrees, and the decline of the graduate premium. Also, an insistence on maintaining existing fee levels for EU students under the scheme will ensure that only young people from relatively privileged backgrounds will be able to take part with many others being excluded because of their circumstances.
There is extensive evidence of the economic benefits of youth mobility. The UKTBC report argued that the scheme “will provide huge opportunities for young people both in the UK and EU” and identified major benefits as including skills development, enhanced proficiency in foreign languages, cultural understanding, enhanced confidence and increased employability strengthening the UK’s future workforce and economy. It added that for the scheme to succeed “it must be genuinely accessible to young people across the UK and Europe ……financial barriers remain one of the most significant hurdles for applicants. Young people from modest backgrounds, eager to study or work abroad, should not be deterred by fees or overly restrictive savings requirements”. Overall, the report stated unequivocally that “We urge our government and the European Union to show ambition, flexibility and trust and to rise this moment of possibility together”
This reinforced the findings of a joint study by the Centre for European Reform and the House of Commons Library (Jan 2025) which concluded that a Youth Mobility scheme would generate an additional £5 billion per annum in tax revenues for the UK Exchequer, 0.45% growth in GDP per annum and would help to meet acute skills shortages in key service and seasonal industries.
The YES Campaign
Faced by the apparent stall in negotiations, which contrasted sharply with the speed with which the UK’s re-entry to the EU Erasmus Plus Programme was agreed, a campaign was organised earlier this summer led by the Young European Movement and the National Campaign for Erasmus Plus. An Open Letter was delivered to then PM Keir Starmer in 10 Downing Street in June entitled “Delivering a Pragmatic UK-EU Youth Experience Scheme” and was signed by a range of bodies and prominent individuals representing young people, the education sector and business organisations with cross-party support. The letter argued that the government’s concerns were not insurmountable “if approached with pragmatism and good faith” and that
- The over-riding focus should be on the benefits of the scheme for our young people and seeking formal agreement to proceed
- Financial barriers to participation should be minimised to ensure that the programme is not “the preserve of the privileged” and is socially inclusive. This should involve a compromise on UK international student fees for EU students and minimising additional visa, healthcare and savings costs and requirements.
Following the delivery of the Open Letter and shortly before Keir Starmer resigned agreement appeared to be close with a likely ‘cap’ on numbers participating and crucially, strong indications that international student fees for EU students coming to the UK being reduced to a level equivalent to or slightly more than those paid by home UK students. However, it appears that since the arrival of the new Burnham led government, elements within the university sector may have taken up the cudgels once more to argue that any reduction in international student fees will threaten their financial viability
In response, campaigners have just delivered a further Open Letter to Andy Burnham as the new Prime Minister and the minister responsible Hamish Falconer urging them to deal with the outstanding issues and reach agreement before the November summit. They have also organised and Early Day Motion which has been sponsored by a cross-party group of MPs and will be presented in the House of Commons before the November summit..
Next Steps; Getting the Deal Done
If the YES scheme is not agreed by the November summit there is a danger that it could fall by the wayside, with thousands of young people missing out on Life changing opportunities as a result. If you want to support the campaign for YES contact your MP straight away to urge them to press for early approval of the scheme.
The stakes are high. At a time of growing international uncertainty and tension, we need to focus on the bigger issues at stake here and raise our sights. An EU official quoted recently in the Guardian alluded to this when he said “The strategy is about ensuring that our societies keep linked, understand each other and see each other as part of the same family of nations ……. If Europe is to stand together, it has to feel a common sense of purpose when it comes to international relations and democracy. Ensuring that our young people can travel to each other’s countries, work and study is an important part of that.” Labour MP Stella Creasy said that “This is a deal that will bring back freedoms young Brits from all backgrounds lost with Brexit as well as boosting growth. It’s a win-win, and the government should see it’s purpose of travel, not numbers of young people, that matters.”
The new Burnham government is indicating that it wants a more ambitious relationship with the EU. In this context getting the UK / EU Youth Experience Scheme over the line in the next month should be an obvious priority and declaration of intent. We have reached the point where we need to put the interests of the current and future generations of our young people front and centre so let’s get the deal done NOW,
By Martin Cumella, Co-founder and Editor of the Skills and Growth Initiative. He has 35 years’ experience as a UK and international education consultant and is a former Chair of Newham College of Further Education
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