I don't know what that is but let me be the first to say cheese please
this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2025
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okmatewanker
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Inviting people to your country for an education and making that appealing has for hundreds of years been one of the most effective long-term "soft power" moves a country can do. It naturalises other people to your culture, spreads your ways of thinking, and reinforces relevance in the global consciousness.
Logically, these people should be happy to allow foreign students to be educated in their country and see how 'great' it is.
But one can't assume any capacity for logical thought.
In the UK they also get charged extra for education and end up offsetting our education costs for locals
Maybe in the civilised parts of the country.
Certainly not anywhere they're charging £9.5k per student per year though.
What? Where I am it's like £3-4k
From August 2025, universities in England and Wales may charge up to £9,535 for a full-time degree, or £11,440 for an accelerated degree in England.
Versus a place that regards education as important for all classes of people to access:
If you attend university in Scotland, you can be charged up to £1,820 a year for an undergraduate degree. You don’t need a student loan for this. Instead, the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) will pay your fees for you if you’re eligible. You must apply to SAAS each year for them to do this.
Bloody young people coming over here enriching our cultural and academic institutions.
And also leaving afterwards. Erasmus is not a migration thing, it's purely temporary.
Not to mention vice-versa - young Britons living abroad and seeing different cultures and ways of doing things.
I can tell you from my experience as an immigrant (in several countries, including Britain) that there is no better way to start spotting that so many things in one's homeland aren't thus because "that's just how these things are", than living somewhere else for a while and seeing many such things being different or done differently.
All countries have plenty of shit with massive negative effects or side effects - not just politics but actual cultural habits and even the way people work - that needs not be so and is done better elsewhere.
For example, Britain's idea that "work hard" is a good thing is almost the opposite of the view in countries were people work much more efficiently - and thus, amongst other things, have way better work-life balance - such as The Netherland, were the objective is "work smart" not hard and people working long hours are suspected of doing so because they don't know how to do their jobs properly or management is incompetent and doesn't know how to plan and resource correctly, almost the opposite of Britain were it's usually considered a good thing that shows commitment.
For the kind of peoplo who manipulate the muppets who vote for things like Brexit, people openning their eyes and seeing how much of the shit going on in their own country that they think is "normal" is no such thing, is a threat.
Bloody foreigners coming 'ere and stealing our education!
Laughed out loud at this one
But it will affect him. The small number of highly educated people will boost the economy and improve his quality of life in measurable but hard to notice ways. Also if he visits a university town to admire the 'dreaming spires', he'll also see a lot of foreigners to complain about, and he obviously enjoys complaining.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Erasmus is the best money the EU ever spent. Glad to see the UK rejoin it.
Bloody foreigners coming over here and offsetting our natives' university tuition fees!
Nobody tell them that Norway and Switzerland also participate in Erasmus. Not to mention it's far from the only way to get a study visa. Or that it usually only lasts about twice as long as the max tourism visa (3 months).