Canada's Erasmus+ Pitch, and the 'Third Country' Problem

Prime Minister Mark Carney has proposed that Canada join Erasmus+, the European Union's education programme, in an address to the European Parliament. The distance between proposing and joining is administrative rather than rhetorical. Canada is currently classified as a “third country not associated to the Programme,” a status that lets Canadian institutions take part in certain activities only under specific conditions. And as an analysis in The Conversation Canada argues, what students and staff would actually get out of membership depends on how Canadian participation is funded, administered and made accessible — the unglamorous design choices that decide whether mobility is broad or merely available.