Faint o fyfyrwyr sy'n treulio amser dramor yn astudio ac ar brofiad gwaith ar hyn o bryd, a faint o arian a gaiff ei fuddsoddi mewn cynllun peilot i ariannu astudiaethau rhyngwladol a chyfleoedd profiad gwaith yn 2018/19, 2019/20 a 2020/21, gan ddarparu'r nifer targed y bwriedir ei gyflawni drwy'r cynllun?
Erasmus+ is the current EU programme for education, training, youth and sport, open to all sectors of lifelong learning including higher education, vocational education and training, school education, adult education as well as youth and sport. Wales has a good participation rate in Erasmus+, and the predecessor Lifelong learning programmes, which allow students to study or undertake work experience/ volunteering in another EU country.
The Erasmus+ UK National Agency publishes regular statistical reports which provide detail on the amount of funding awarded and the number of projects and participants across the UK, split by country. The most recent report on take up in Wales is dated February 2018 and provides figures for the 2016 projects[1]:
- Since the start of the programme, a total of 187 projects have been initiated, involving 7,595
- Figures for 2016 show a total of 2853 participants, (made up of 2235 students and 618 staff)
- In HE 876 students and 217 staff took advantage of the scheme.
- In Vocational and Educational training, 588 students, 105 staff.
- In the field of Youth and Sport, 771 young people, and 27 staff benefited.
The Welsh Government’s position is clear in that we would wish to retain access to Erasmus+ as set out in our White Paper Securing Wales’ Future. The future of access to this and other EU programmes is subject to the negotiations with the European Union being led by the UK Government.
The position on UK participation in the successor Erasmus+ scheme from January 2021 will form part of the negotiations on the future relationship between the EU and the UK. In her speech on 2 March, the Prime Minister indicated a positive view on future UK participation in educational programmes with the EU.
The Welsh Government is also committed to running a pilot scheme to explore the practicalities of extending the higher education student support package to students wishing to study beyond the UK and EU, as recommended by the Diamond Review of Student Support and Higher Education Funding. It is anticipated that the pilot will be launched in the 2018/19 academic year with activities focused on publicising the pilot and application process, with candidates applying to study from the start of the 2019/20 academic year. The pilot is scheduled to run for three years from 2019/20 and would offer the opportunity to test the practicalities, potential benefits and risks of offering portability funding for overseas study. The budget and target numbers for the pilot have not yet been confirmed.
In January 2018, the Welsh Government appointed OB3 Research, in conjunction with the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) of Cardiff University, to undertake a scoping study to provide evidence to support the development of the overseas study pilot. A final report is due to be submitted to Welsh Government in June 2018.
Seren - Yale
In January, the Welsh Government established a new partnership between the Seren Network (an initiative to raise attainment among Wales' brightest sixth formers) and Yale's Young Global Scholars Summer School programme. The partnership provides a scholarship of $6,000 per student (co-funded by the Welsh Government and Yale Young Global Scholars) to Seren students to study at the Yale Young Global Scholars summer school, USA. This is a pilot, and the first year of this partnership. Seventeen Welsh students will attend the Yale summer school. These students represent nine of the eleven Seren hubs across Wales.
The Yale summer programmes are delivered between 17th June and August 9th 2018. Each student will stay on campus at the Yale University learning from world-renowned professors and practitioners. They will have the opportunity to live and work with Yale academics and international students for a fortnight. They will form a part of the 1,768 cohort from 126 countries across the world and 50 US states.
Yale have committed a sponsorship of $25,500 and the Welsh Government will fund the remaining costs of $51,000 (exchange rate 4/6/18 = £38,169). External sponsorship has been sought to support the students travel costs.
[1] erasmusplus.org.uk/results-and-statistics