Bids open for the second year of the Turing Scheme

Bids have opened for the second year of the Turing Scheme, which has seen students travel to over one hundred countries since it launched last year.

Universities, schools and colleges are invited to submit applications for grants to the scheme, which is backed by £110m for the next academic year.

The first year of the programme, which replaced the UK’s participation in the Erasmus+ scheme, has seen UK students embark on journeys to every corner of the globe – from Iceland to Indonesia.

Projects have included 30 pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in Wales visiting Cleveland, Ohio earlier this month to spend time in the homes of their US peers, and 16 teenage pupils from Buckinghamshire spending a week in Bangkok, Thailand, and raising thousands of pounds for a local orphanage.

As well as supporting work and study placements, the Turing Scheme also opens the door to volunteering opportunities in unique settings all over the world. UK universities and colleges are able to partner with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and public bodies, and schools with other schools, to create opportunities for UK students to volunteer in support of important causes. One Cambridgeshire Secondary School plans for forty pupils to visit Jodhpur, India, as part of fundraising efforts for a residential school in the region helping young people with disabilities.

The opening of Turing Scheme bids comes after it was confirmed that the UK had for the first time hit its target for the number of international students coming to the UK, almost 10 years ahead of schedule. New figures published in January showed that in the year 2020/21, more than 600,000 international students chose to study in the UK, a figure the Government had pledged to hit by 2030.

The Turing Scheme delivers on the Government’s mission to level-up opportunity and life chances across the UK, by targeting areas which previously benefited less under the Erasmus+ programme, and providing extra funding for disadvantaged students to cover travel, passport and visa costs.

Bids open on 31st March for universities, schools and colleges in every region and nation of the UK to submit applications for Year 2 of the Turing Scheme, for academic year 2022/23.