“Brexit consequences: Rhineland-Palatinate faces challenges in English teaching as Erasmus funding ends”

Malu Dreyer on the second day of her trip to Scotland: There she is confronted with the fatal consequences of Brexit. In the long term, the end of Erasmus funding for students will also mean that there will be far fewer English teachers – including here in Rhineland-Palatinate.

[Kinder stellen sich  vor]

We are at Craigmont High School in a suburb of Edinburgh. German lessons are still held here. Three students from the University of Mainz were also there. A stay of at least three months in an English-speaking country is mandatory for them. But since the European Erasmus funding is ending due to Brexit, the German students will have to pitch their tents here very soon – including 25-year-old Mark Leopold, who is studying English to become a teacher in Mainz

Mark Leopold, English student from Mainz
“The problem is that if you can no longer go to England because the Brexit program is no longer available and there is no more money from Erasmus, you can only go to a country within Europe where English is really still spoken. The only thing would then be the USA, which would involve additional costs. And there are always only a few places.”

And whether Ireland’s universities alone would be able to absorb the onslaught is questionable.
But the loss of European study funding would also have very tangible consequences for Scotland itself. In the not too distant future, learning the German language in Scottish schools would disappear

dr Sigrid Rieuwerts, Scotland representative at the University of Mainz
“If, for example, I pull out my GETs, my foreign language assistants, in Edinburgh now, if they don’t come back in the autumn, then German lessons will be canceled at 27 primary schools in Edinburgh alone because there are no staff there.”

A lot of staff will be working in this brand new laboratory very soon. A center of excellence in life sciences is emerging here at the Edinburgh BioQuarter. In the end, 8,000 people will do research and study here. The paths are short, Scotland has defined biotechnology as a key technology of the 21st century and is setting an impressive pace. It is one of the up-and-coming countries in terms of research and development. A role model for Rhineland Palatinate?

Clemens Hoch, SPD, Science Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate
“What the Scots do even more consistently than we do in Germany is to bring different disciplines together in one place to do research together. So not just biologists and chemists, but engineers and computer scientists to actually get interdisciplinary research results. So far we have relied heavily on our flagships, i.e. on Max Planck, on Fraunhofer and now on Helmholtz. But in fact we will work much more closely together in the future.”

Malu Dreyer wants to work more closely with Scotland – and it was a good thing that the new Prime Minister, First Minister Humza Yousaf, met Malu Dreyer for an exchange. Scotland may be on the edge of Europe, but the visitors from Rhineland-Palatinate understood that Scotland shouldn’t be overlooked.

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Eva Dieterle, moderator: And now I welcome the Prime Minister, good evening.

Malu Dreyer, SPD, Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate: Yes, have a nice day. Good evening, Miss Dieterle.

Dieterle: Ms. Dreyer, you were the first high-ranking politician from the EU to meet the new First Minister of Scotland. What did you talk to him about?

Dreyer: Yes, it was a great honor that the First Minister took the time, even though he had only just been sworn in. We talked about all topics that are relevant for Rhineland-Palatinate in relation to Scotland and he was very open to this conversation. He, too, has a great interest in ensuring that the cooperation continues. And we agree that, despite Brexit, we have to find ways downstream, i.e. between Scotland and Rhineland-Palatinate, to be able to ensure exchange and so on as far as possible. We are still in contact about this and I am very confident that we will find solutions.

Dieterle: Like Rhineland-Palatinate, Scotland is a strong biotechnology location. Still, are there things we can learn from Scotland?

Dreyer: Well, Scotland is of course a step further in one area, namely in terms of the large laboratory area and the cooperation of the different disciplines and this in turn is also linked to the topic of spin-ups, i.e. how can young students with their first research results that are promising are, then become self-employed? But that is also the concept that we are pursuing in Rhineland-Palatinate and there is a great deal that already exists in our state. We will continue to be in close contact with the scientists and we will actually be taking big steps to give emphasis to our plans. I think what we saw today in Scotland encourages us to continue on the path.

Dieterle: What are the common interests of Scotland and Rhineland-Palatinate for the future?

Dreyer: Yes, we have three main pillars that connect us to Scotland and where we want to invest in the future. On the one hand, there is the mutual exchange in the field of education, which concerns our teacher training, but of course also what concerns pupils. The second is in biotechnology, in science, to move forward. And the third is also the topic of green hydrogen, which we were able to visit here together. Scotland has great resources there and I hope that we can cooperate even more closely in the future.

Dieterle: Ms. Dreyer, thank you very much for the interview.

Dreyer: Thank you.