Being replaced with a new scheme (The "Turing Scheme") which will be very similar to ERASMUS but will be worldwide instead of limited to Europe. [1] Sounds like British students will have a little more mobility, not sure if it'll benefit the British universities themselves though
I am pretty sure such a scheme cannot be introduced unilaterally. It also requires other countries and universities to receive your students. Where Erasmus is an established student exchange programme, the UK or the UK universities will have to build relationships with foreign unis. And I doubt somehow that this programme will short/mid-term provide any more mobility due to lack of a university network.
UK universities are well connected. They will be fine.
If the EU unilaterally offers UK students ERASMUS opportunities, and Guy Verhofstadt and I can see solid reasons why they might, that seems like a net win for students.
Continued membership of ERASMUS was negotiated but the UK was unwilling to continue to pay the same rate it did before, which makes me think the replacement UK scheme will either fund fewer places or only fund them in cheaper countries.
It will also be interesting to see what the university fee structure will eventually be like.
EU students who have started a degree with a reduced fee are especially worried about next years. And in Scotland there are already four tiers of fees: Scotland, rest of UK, EU, and international (other).
Probably universities felt like they were losing out, since they can sell those places to international (non-EU) students for much higher prices.
EDIT: I'm talking about UK universities obviously.