The Turing scheme today officially opens for funding applications from colleges, schools and universities, the Department for Education has announced.
The £110 million scheme, announced in December 2020 as the UK left the European Union and dropped out of the Erasmus+ scheme, is aiming to fund 35,000 global exchanges from this September.
According to the DfE, it will target students from disadvantaged backgrounds and areas that did not previously have many students benefiting from Erasmus+. It will also grant university students from disadvantaged backgrounds 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.
Every country in the world is eligible to partner with the UK’s colleges, schools and universities, said the government.
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Prime minister Boris Johnson said the Turing scheme “is a truly global programme”.
“It is also levelling up in action, as the scheme seeks to help students of all income groups from across the country to experience fantastic education opportunities in any country they choose,” he said.
Boris Johnson: Turing scheme ‘for students of all income groups’
Education secretary Gavin Williamson said it was a “landmark step in delivering on our promise to level up a truly global Britain”.
“The programme’s focus on social mobility and value for money will open up more opportunities for international education and travel to all of our students, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds who were less likely to benefit from the previous EU scheme,” he said.
“I urge all universities, schools and colleges from all corners of the UK to start their applications and partner up with countries worldwide.”
Student-exchange scheme ‘a very poor substitute’
However, Richard Lochhead, Scotland’s minister for further education, higher education and science, told Tes that the scheme was a “very poor substitute”.
He said: “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.
“The Turing scheme is a very poor substitute and, with every day that goes by, more and more people are uncovering aspects of the scheme that highlight that it really is a huge step backwards to where we were before.”
