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For the second year running the British Council has failed to process the Erasmus Grant payments on time.
Last year British students studying in Europe were left penniless after Erasmus grants, meant to arrive in September, weren’t paid out until November.
But the British Council, which administers the grants, doesn’t seem to have learnt from its mistakes; payments have as yet not been made despite students expecting to have the money in their accounts by September 27th
Students, Tutors and Year Abroad Offices are becoming increasingly frustrated with the organisation that claims: “to represent the very best of the modern UK”
There are fears of a repeat of last year’s two-month delays, which left students going hungry, sinking further into debt and falling behind on rent payments.
Erasmus Grants, worth £2,310 over an academic year, are paid to UK students studying on the continent as part of the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Program.
In 2006, Government body The British Council won the right to process payments from the Commission on behalf of all UK Higher Education Institutions.
The Year Abroad is an integral part of Modern Foreign Language courses in Britain.
It’s something that many students look forward to. One student said “I hope it will be the best year of my life”
Yet it is likely to be an experience they will want to forget if the British Council doesn’t get its house in order soon.
Second year in a row
In September a London Student investigation revealed that the British Council had not employed enough staff and had not adequately trained the staff it had employed in order to process the payments on time.
At the time The British Council told London Student that the delays would not be repeated as staff: “are all now fully trained and knowledgeable about the new programme”
They went on to boast that: “we now have processes in place to ensure the smooth payments of future allocations”
The first payment was due on September 29th and there is still no sign of it arriving.
Blame Game
In a statement to London Student the British Council blamed Year Abroad Offices for the delays, stating that the payments: “cannot be processed, as the institutions have either not yet returned their final reports for last year or their Grant Agreements for 08/09, or they have still to reimburse us for earlier years’ unused funding”
One baffled University of London Year Abroad Office told London Student: “That’s just not true. I don’t understand that. We completed all our paper work on time. Are they serious?”
UCL’s Year Abroad Coordinator Jo Turner told London Student, “we are disappointed that for the second year running the British Council has experienced problems in paying Erasmus funds to UCL, and other UK universities, and that our students are suffering as a result.”
Clueless
The British Council were also unable to give London Student an expected date for the payments, and failed to explain why, given last year’s problems, the situation had not been anticipated and payment schedules adjusted.
Students on their year abroad are livid. UCL Spanish student Suzana Lima, studying in Madrid, said: “If the British Council had the same problems last year and they haven’t learnt from their mistakes then how can they be trusted this time?”
Lima spoke for all students affected when she said: “Moving to a different country is hard enough as it is let alone having money worries at the back of your mind?”
Couldn’t Care Less
Despite claiming on its website that its core values include “treating people with courtesy and respect” and “taking responsibility for our actions and decisions”, The British Council again refused to apologise to students for this or last year’s Erasmus students for the delays in payments.
