What unis are means testing Turing scheme funding?

[Yearabroad]

NC for this one. DD applying for MFL and has heard that some universities (Birmingham is one she thinks) are means testing their Turing scheme funding. So if your household income is less than, say £25k, you don’t get funding for year abroad.

This would be a HUGE problem for us as it will be a challenge as it is to top up the minimum maintenance loan (all she qualifies for as household income is £70k).

Does anyone know which unis are means testing their Turing funding in this way?

@TizerorFizz something @KnickerlessParsons could do with learning!

@pointythings
I don’t see how stories of pre EU days are relevant really. We need greater MFL acquisition and cultural understanding of others in the uk.

@TizerorFizz I couldn't agree more. Language teaching is shockingly bad in the UK and culture is so very anglocentric.

@pointythings Unfortunately the lack of cultural awareness has cost the uk a lot. The young more than the older people who voted for Brexit.

Realise thread has now moved on but I believe Nottingham also means tests their Turing funding (certainly they were doing so last year, disclaimer that this could have all changed by now).

I was very lucky when I did my Year Abroad as I still got Erasmus funding which was extremely generous and made my YA possible. I would not have qualified for the Turing funding (and I believe in Nottingham's case it's all the Turing funding available to you that they means-test, rather than a 'top-up) and I would have found it near impossible to do a YA without it as neither I nor my family have anywhere close to the funds needed.

Worth noting that the govt maintenance loan does go up during the Year Abroad, but not by huge amounts. There are obviously work placements which will help but a lot of the costs are upfront. I believe some independent scholarships are also available (Santander comes to mind) but they'll be like gold dust.

It's a real shame that we're in the situation we're in but alas that's the reality of it.

Worth noting that the govt maintenance loan does go up during the Year Abroad, but not by huge amounts. Not sure if it has for dd

@thetwofridas
Unfortunately getting work abroad is now getting more difficult. The British Council still has language assistant positions but other work can be difficult to find for a number of reasons.

https://www.gov.uk/student-finance/continuing-fulltime-students

The maximum for studying abroad is £11,116 for the current year, which is £1400 more than the awy from home, outside London rate. Is she at university in London?

I did my MFL degree during the £3k tuition fee period and in a non-EU language. So no Erasmus funding at all (in fact i was always pretty jealous of the Erasmus students). Our student visas allowed us to work something like up to 10hrs per week and all of us were able to pick up work with local schools, helping out in english classes etc (not through the British Council but through the connections of our universities or connections of our hosts for those of us doing homestay for accommodation or in the local english language newspaper), which topped up our student loans and basically kept us going (this was a very expensive city to live in). We basically studied 9am-3pm then many of us worked 4pm-6pm so still plenty of time for immersion in the city / with host families / on weekends etc. I also had to write an extended essay for my home uni during the time and managed to fit that in as well. Forgive my ignorance, but is this not an option?

@MarchingFrogs no not London, will have to check

@23NameChange Visa? Work requires visas now even in Europe I believe. British Council is the best bet for teaching English/school assistant route. Not sure universities have direct connections with schools. My DD was also in the lower fees days and both were EU countries but teaching was all BC organised. I just think the work situation is more difficult now. Plus the uncertainty of funding.

Yes, my post clearly said "Our student visas allowed us to work something like up to 10hrs per week " So my question is whether there is a similar allowance on European student visas. Do you work in the HE sector / coordinating year abroads? What's the experience outside your DC experience?

Nothing we did was BC related - in fact BC were well known for paying much lower salaries than what most of us earned having sought out work independently by the routes in my earlier post.

@TizerorFizz Don't I know it! Could write a whole thread about the difficulties with work placements (particularly in Spain, but most countries really) but thought my post was already quite long haha.

@LIZS @MarchingFrogs v good point about the London difference! I was outside London so it did go up for me but like I said, not by huge amounts.

In terms of visas, in my experience @23NameChange is right, at least in France - plenty of people I knew on my YA were working alongside studying, often nannying or English tutoring, which was easy enough work to find. To the best of my knowledge, this is perfectly legal and the French visa has quite a generous work allowance for students (there's some details here).

@thetwofridas Has Brexit not changed the work position? I thought it had.

Im not an expert and my DD went to a university in each country and had to do 2 extended essays for her uk university, I genuinely think that’s the easier route now but Turing is causing funding issues. There isn’t enough suitable work for everyone. I remember DDs uni said they vetted the quality of it for language purposes.

@TizerorFizz Brexit meant that you had to actually get a visa (yet another cost, and more faff), which you didn't before. Once you've got one though, that's the situation.

Agree with you that studying is by far the easier and more practical route in a lot of cases. Anecdotally, work placements were better for language improvement but that's obviously not a blanket rule and you're right that unis will want to approve it if it's not a scheme they've already set up.

Fundamentally though, like has been said, the lack of Turing funding will cause a huge problem for a lot of students in terms of funding their YA. Does absolutely nothing for the dire situation MFL is already in.

@MarchingFrogs checked with dd and it seems ml has gone up by a few hundred. She thinks those on low incomes can get help with upfront costs like visa, health insurance and flights too.

Oh, one thing I forgot to add as well is student finance do have a scheme where you can claim back some travel costs for a YA, but again you have to pay upfront and then claim it back afterwards, and you also have to cover a certain amount yourself. It's a separate form from what I remember but if you're heading to a far flung destination it could be useful.

The greater difficulty is always faced by those who don’t qualify as disadvantaged but whose parents struggle for money due to other family costs. I completely agree that this puts MFL and the YA for many as an extra expense which some will avoid.

DD at Newcastle, the first year the university were allocated close to what they applied for from Turing. Year 2 the award was much smaller and hence why they only gave it to students from low income backgrounds, and are saying those are the students who will get it. Another one of the problems is that the universities only find out their allocation in the summer. It's very much a slashed back scheme from Erasmus. Lots of hype from Boris Johnson for a poor scheme which will prevent many students from doing years abroad. Brexit, the gift that keeps on giving.

To do British Council or studying in Spain, you need a long-stay student visa. On this you're not allowed to work outside of your placement. BC is fairly generous, 700 euros a month in 2021-22, which is more than enough to live on in northern Spain at any rate. Turing funding is not reliable, whether or not it is means tested. It's supposed to help with flights and visas etc, but it comes so late (pretty much when the placement actually starts) that you don't get it in time to pay anything like flights, all the visa paperwork (it adds up), rental deposits. If DC don't have savings, best option is probably to work in the UK as soon as second year is over in order to fund initial costs.