The government’s new Turing scheme, set up to replace the EU’s Erasmus+ programme post-Brexit, is “far better value for the taxpayer” and will provide opportunities to study and work abroad for more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, a Department for Education minister has said.

Speaking to Tes on the day the scheme opens for applications from colleges, schools and universities, universities minister Michelle Donelan said it was clear from the Turing scheme that the government’s priority was to have a scheme that “actually supports exchanges for students from all backgrounds, and that is at the very heart of Turing”.

“It wasn’t at the heart of Erasmus+,” said Ms Donelan. “Erasmus+ particularly favoured those from more advantaged backgrounds and also those that were potentially language students and linguists, especially at higher education level. This I going to be an inclusive scheme where we focus on breaking down those barriers to allow people to participate.

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“And also, it provides value for money for the taxpayer. We are funding it to the tune of £110 million just for year one. We are committed to international exchanges and we will remain solid on that commitment, but it is far better value for the taxpayer. If we look at Erasmus+ and what it was projected to have cost if we had joined the next programme, it would have cost us £2 billion more than we get out in that time. That is a staggering amount.”

Turing student-exchange scheme ‘part of levelling up agenda’

The Turing scheme will aim to fund 35,000 study or work opportunities from September 2021 - including university study, school exchanges, and industry work placements. According to the DfE, it targets students from disadvantaged backgrounds and areas that did not previously have many students benefiting from Erasmus+. Students may also be able to receive a maximum of £490 per month towards living costs, alongside travel funding, and other forms of additional funding to offset the cost of passports, visas and insurance.  

Ms Donelan told Tes that the government would also fund recce trips to schools or colleges for disabled students to ensure accessibility.

“We see this very much as part of the levelling up agenda. My messages to schools and colleges would certainly be to get involved with this. It is an exciting opportunity that we are offering here for a global exchange for young people to really have a life-changing opportunity,” she said.

The UK’s new scheme does not include funding for any opportunities for students from outside the UK to study or work here in the way Erasmus+ did. However, Ms Donelan said: “While it is not a prerequisite, we do anticipate that it will, by its very nature, encourage exchanges, especially in universities. We think that it is right that, as a UK government, we are funding particularly our UK participants to go abroad and we would anticipate that other countries would do similar.

“And we want that inward mobility, that is so important for our local communities, our educational settings and the very fabric of those communities. But let’s remember we are the second most attractive destination for international students - we have a lot of pull. We know that EU and non-EU countries have a number of separate schemes to Erasmus that could help the inward [mobility] and we will continue to work closely with that. The feedback we are having from around the globe is extremely positive.”

Ms Donelan said apprenticeships and skills minister Gillian Keegan and schools minister Nick Gibb had carried out virtual visits to Lincoln College and a group of Scottish school ambassadors respectively, and both of them had talked of the “fantastic reception and interest” they had received on the scheme.

She stressed the scheme did include adult students and apprentices - as long as they are affiliated with a further education college - however, staff would not benefit at this stage. Ms Donelan said: “Of course, we are still funding those that are accompanying younger children and student chaperones, but we are prioritising taxpayers’ money here to support students and learners and pupils as much as we possibly can to really widen that access and participation and to give them the skills. This is year one and we will be reviewing it throughout and are working with the education sector to make sure it does deliver.”

Speaking exclusively to Tes yesterday, Scotland’s FE, HE and science minister, Richard Lochhead, said the UK pulling out of Erasmus+ post-Brexit was an “ideological assault” by the Conservative government and a “travesty”. He added: “It is an ideological assault by the Conservative government that has left our younger generations the victims. I have no doubt in my mind that UK government ministers viewed Erasmus+ as some kind of emblem of European solidarity and therefore they wanted to walk away from it.”