Dear John,

this was, of course, the mentioned in our report but somehow lost in the newspaper article.

best wishes,
Andrea

Andrea Klaus MA CertEd HE FHEA
Senior Teaching Fellow
German Studies
School of Modern Languages and Cultures
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL
United Kingdom
Tel: 02476 524419
________________________________________
From: JISCmail German Studies List [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of J.G.Partridge [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 14 December 2016 00:00
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Age of anger

Dear Silke, Andrea and Richard,
Thank you for circulating this valuable report.
What it does not mention, however, despite the undoubted value of the assistantship scheme and industrial internship ,is that it also to a great extent furthers university student exchange, from which it was originally developed and has further led to much postgraduate research collaboration.
With best wishes,

John Partridge

Dr John Partridge
Honorary Lecturer in German and Linguistics
University of Kent
Canterbury
Kent CT2 7NF
From: JISCmail German Studies List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Silke Mentchen
Sent: 13 December 2016 18:22
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Age of anger


Dear list members,
please find below an article in The New European about Erasmus+ from this week. As the article is not part of the digital version of the paper, we have posted it below.

Best wishes, Andrea Klaus and Silke Mentchen

December 9 - December 15, 2016 The New European

UK Erasmus scheme fears

Richard Porritt    [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

Britain being excluded from a hugely- successful, Europe-wide student exchange scheme post-Brexit would be a “calamity”, according to leading university lecturers.

Since it was launched in 1987 the Erasmus scheme – named after the Renaissance humanist philosopher – has supported both student and staff mobility throughout the European academic community. In the three decades since, more than 200,000 British students have spent an EU-funded year abroad working in industry or as language assistants in schools. In exchange, roughly twice this number have visited Britain as part of the project. However, Britain’s future involvement has been thrown into doubt by the referendum result.

A new report, though, outlines the huge benefits it brings to students and the British economy, and calls for the government to protect it. The analysis, written by modern language lecturers Andrea Klaus, of Warwick University, and the University of Cambridge’s Silke Mentchen, highlights the spike in interest of studying abroad in recent years and the huge financial impact foreign students have on Britain’s bottom line. Since 2007 the number of UK students taking advantage of the opportunity to spend a year abroad has risen by 115%. Meanwhile, the large number of European young people coming the other way is worth £3.7bn annually to Britain.

Since June 23 the pair have interviewed students returning from years abroad about their time away and the impact it has had on their lives and – crucially – their employability. Ms Klaus said the results of the survey proved the value of Erasmus beyond doubt. “The vast majority of the students we asked said they believe they are more employable after their year abroad both in the UK and overseas,” she said. “And all agreed that they have acquired skills a potential employer would be looking for. But it is not just the students who believe this. A 2015 report by the British Council stated that ‘the UK needs graduates who have the skills and confidence to compete globally, and can compete against foreign talent that may speak more languages and have wider international experience.  And in a recent survey more than half of British employers said they were unhappy with graduates’ language skills and nearly half were not satisfied with graduates’ cultural awareness. The loss of Erasmus would be of immense detriment to modern foreign languages and to our future students in general. We believe that Erasmus also benefits our own institutions by helping to promote a spirit of openness and multiculturalism through in-coming students.”

The report’s co-author Ms Mentchen added that the year aborad offers more than just the language skills associated with working alongside native speakers. “Drawing from our survey it can clearly be seen how very much students of Modern Foreign languages value the year abroad in the context of Erasmus,” she said. “The UK’s exclusion would be a calamity for the academic exchange between Britain and the rest of the EU as well as for future cultural bonds. It is now in the hands of the British government to prevent this from happening and to guarantee the continuation of the possibilities offered by the year abroad for future generations of students.”



**********************************************
Silke Mentchen
Director of Outreach and School Liaison
Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages
Senior Language Teaching Officer
Department of German and Dutch
University of Cambridge
Sidgwick Avenue CB3 9DA
Fellow and Tutor, Magdalene College
Department: ++44 (0) 1223 3 350 17
Magdalene: ++44 (0) 1223 3 321 03