The Turin Scheme

[DonnaDonna01]

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience with the governments Turin Scheme?
I’ve tried to find out online about it and was under the impression it was accessible for uni students and had to be applied for by your university. My son is in his second year has asked and asked about this scheme and been blanked, I now know the application deadline has been missed and when I’ve asked questions my son has been told it wasn’t accessible for his cohort? Any knowledge out there?

My DDs uni participates.Here's the link:
www.turing-scheme.org.uk/funding-opportunities/higher-education-funding/

Thank you, I’ve already checked that but wanted more detail to see if there is a reason why my son’s uni are saying they couldn’t participate or if they just haven’t bothered.

The statement Your organisation must be an officially recognised higher education provider registered in the UK or a British Overseas Territory sounds pretty comprehensive. If he is studying at a UK university, it would appear that it could have applied for funding?

Are any students in his year doing a year abroad from September? DD is (at least, meant to be) going to France, but has been told that this is still under Erasmus.

It’s usually found in details of the course he’s doing. So is it one with a year abroad? You wouldn’t be asking in Y2 for a place abrusd in Y3 in May. It’s very late. If he’s a MFL student, the university will have an arrangement in place. If it’s a course with a year abroad it should also be organised now.

I would assume the scheme is for these students and not just anyone who enquires. However all universities who send dc abroad should have an “Erasmus” office.

Some universities do seem to have have an 'anyone can ask' (though presumably, not 'everyone gets') policy as well as courses with a set time abroad, but this would be far too late to be trying to access it.

If they do try and accommodate students who ask one would assume it should be much earlier than this - I agree.

Has there been any info about placements reducing with the swap over to Turing? I’m surprised exchanges are still under Erasmus but perhaps it’s “informal”?

His course is one that can do a year abroad and he hasn’t just started asking now about the Turin scheme. In his first year he secured a place overseas, but it was cancelled due to the pandemic, he has been asking about the Turin scheme since it was first announced and has basically been ignored until I have became involved. But yes it is too late for him now but that shouldn’t mean I leave it because it could help next years students if the uni is missing an opportunity here.

Check whether the Erasmus+ scheme is still running too. DDs friends who have places abroad next year are both thru Erasmus+ as funding has been extended to 2023.

At DDs uni they have been prioritising compulsory years abroad this year but one of DDs friends does have a non compulsory place but doesn't know whether it will go ahead. Uni are saying more likely to be 2nd semester only.

As already pointed out many unis are still able to access Erasmus + because they applied to two year funding so still being honoured.
Thankfully DDs uni is covered by this so her uni fees abroad are also covered. Still waiting to hear how much she will get but sure it's more generous than the new scheme.
When DD recently applied for her student finance she was already registered for Erasmus according to her application.
It was a huge relief for us because my (limited) understanding) is that the Turing scheme wouldn't cover her Spanish university fees.

@DonnaDonna01
I am wondering if the problem is that he secured his overseas placement himself so he’s dropped off the radar. I’m mystified as to why he’s not been picked up by the university though regarding what his plans are if he’s alerted them to the issues. I would have thought that they were talking to students in the autumn about placements abroad given the issues. That’s usually when Erasmus fever ramps up!

Universities usually only place students in partner universities and they don’t find work for them. Is this the issue perhaps? He needed to swap to a university abroad maybe?

He now has a meeting next week after a lot of emails backwards and forwards. I do think he should have been more proactive even though we were in the middle of this pandemic but the uni have also had some failings here. Hopefully between them they can find some way of salvaging something out of a bad 1st and 2nd year of his degree due to Covid. I know many people have suffered more during the last 18 months.

Did they know his placement was not going ahead? I guess everyone and everything needs chasing right now. Hope he gets abroad. It’s a great thing to do!

Yes Uni knew about the placement they helped him to get it. Wasn’t for a whole year just a couple of months but would have been so important for him when applying for roles after his course finishes. You just can’t bet having that kind of experience.

Universities don’t find out the outcome of their Turing Applications until late July which will be why students aren’t being told anything about it yet - it’s unlikely most universities will get all the funding they have bid for, so they don’t want to get students’ hopes up by implying that Turing funding is guaranteed.

@indigoemerald the uni have stated in an email that my son’s cohort does not qualify for the scheme - a 2nd year degree student. I’m not sure why they they would say something that is incorrect if it was just so he didn’t get his hopes up.

How would students get accommodation at host universities if they don’t know destinations until July? Or is Turing not the university programme? It all seems last minute to me. When DD did Erasmus she had her halls sorted at her first university by April! We had all the info needed for booking flights and info on the Erasmus office at her first host university. I hate to think of some of the flight difficulties as well as accommodation issues now!

Do all students do a 2 month placement on his course or just a few? That’s not very long. Is Erasmus being extended for MFL undergrads as they must go abroad?

@DonnaDonna01 it's Turing, not Turin. It's named after Alan Turing, the famous mathematician. If you've been calling it Turin in your emails and searched that may be at least part of the reason why answers are elusive.

Also, I believe it's the institution that applies for it, rather than the student. It's very new and universities etc are only just starting to get to grips with it, so they may be reluctant to answer until they have processes in place.

@PresentingPercy students already know where they’re going for their years abroad, they just don’t know yet if they will be receiving any grant money from the Turing Scheme.

@Aghasta my typo error on here, I have been calling it the Turing Scheme. Unis aren’t getting to grips with it, the application window has already closed so if they haven’t applied by now it’s too late. I know it’s the uni’s who need to apply that’s why I’m asking if they have, if it was the student he would have applied when the window opened.

If students don’t know about funding, how can they make plans and book flights and accommodation if they have poor parents? It doesn’t sound great to me.

@PresentingPercy

If students don’t know about funding, how can they make plans and book flights and accommodation if they have poor parents? It doesn’t sound great to me.

This is a problem with the application cycle. Most universities have already selected which students are going abroad during the 21/22 academic year, before Turing was even announced. Students who could not afford it would simply not have applied, and it will be too late for them to opt in in July when the results are known.

OP - which uni is it? There will be a reason as to why he's not eligible. It won't be arbitrary. Study Abroad teams are not in the business of unnecessarily preventing students from going abroad.

Students who cannot afford it, don’t apply. How sad is that?! It’s awful when you think about it.

@PresentingPercy

Students who cannot afford it, don’t apply. How sad is that?! It’s awful when you think about it.

It's really sad, but there's a huge push across the HE sector to make study abroad opportunities accessible to all students, regardless of socioeconomic background, with grants and bursaries offered by many universities.

And that's an issue with this years Turing scheme I should clarify. Erasmus has always had funding for European destinations, with top up grants for students from 'low income' households. Most universities still have Erasmus funding available this year. But if you wanted to go to the USA for example, there was no equivalent grant, until now, but universities can't guarantee they will have that funding until July. Hopefully in future years, universities will know much further in advance whether they will be able to offer funding so that students can apply to study abroad with the assurance that they will get some financial support.