Turing spurs boost for UK outbound student mobility

United Kingdom universities and education institutions pulled out the stops to give the British government’s replacement scheme for outbound student mobility a fighting chance of increasing the number of UK students going abroad on study and work placements compared with the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme.

The new Turing Scheme is the result of a last-minute decision by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to pull the UK out of the latest phase of the Erasmus+ programme as part of the Christmas Eve free-trade Brexit deal with the European Union.

The original estimate was that the Turing Scheme, backed by £110 million (US$152 million) in its first year starting this autumn, would provide funding for about 35,000 UK-based students in universities, colleges and schools to go on placements overseas.

But it offers no financial support for incoming students to the UK, unlike Erasmus+, which funds two-way exchanges.

Lifeboat to keep UK mobility afloat

Despite some criticisms, Turing has exceeded its targets for bids for places as educational institutions responded to the clarion call from the likes of Vivienne Stern, director of Universities UK International, who said that, whatever academics felt about leaving the EU scheme, they must see Turing as a lifeboat to keep student mobility afloat in the UK.

“We must use it or lose it,” she warned the sector.

And the bids came flooding in, with the UK’s Department for Education declaring 40,000 successful proposals for student placements abroad in the first year of the Turing scheme.

A government announcement declared: “As part of the new global scheme, Canada, Japan and the United States are among over 150 international destinations where UK students will be funded to take up work and study placements – alongside popular European countries like Germany and France.”

Shorter study-abroad periods

A key difference between Turing and Erasmus+, apart from the UK replacement only funding outbound students from the UK, is the focus on more short-term mobility periods abroad – down to a minimum of four weeks as opposed to the three months to one-year studying or working abroad associated with Erasmus+.

The UK government claims this should appeal to less advantaged students and widen participation in student mobility across all sections of society.

UK Universities Minister Michelle Donelan said: “The total number of individual placements supported this year through the £110 million scheme stands at over 40,000 – exceeding the Department for Education’s own estimates. This includes 28,000 placements for university students – compared with only 18,300 under Erasmus+ in the academic year 2018-19.”

The announcement means there will now be a scramble at the start of the new academic year to turn those successful bids into actual students wanting the take up the ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity to go abroad for four weeks to a year at the government’s expense.

Casting doubt on the numbers

But some experts have already cast doubt that such a big increase in the number of UK students prepared to take the plunge in studying or working abroad will materialise, especially with COVID-19 restrictions on travel still likely to be place in countries outside Europe.

Professor Paul Cardwell of City Law School, University of London, who has compared the Erasmus and Turing schemes, told The Guardian: “All opportunities to study abroad are welcome, but we need to be clear about how many students will actually go abroad, which will probably be much lower than the numbers that have been bid for.

“We also don’t know whether these placements have been arranged and confirmed and, crucially, how much funding will be allocated to each participant.”

When the Turing scheme was first announced back in January, Cardwell told University World News that he expected most placements would continue to be in Europe.

In a series of tweets, Cardwell also pointed out that the list of 150 countries that the Turing scheme says students may be interested in going to includes some where the Foreign Office advises against ‘all travel’. He also said that, from personal experience, organising exchange agreements outside Erasmus was “highly time-consuming and bureaucratic” on both sides.

Using unspent Erasmus+ funds

Despite warnings from the likes of Cardwell, universities may find themselves awash with student mobility cash this year since, despite the UK deciding not to join the Erasmus+ 2021-27 programme, there is still the opportunity of using unspent funding from the 2014-20 Erasmus+ programme, as University World News reported on 6 March, 2021.

A considerable amount is left in European and UK university coffers as travel abroad was severely disrupted by the pandemic in 2020-21.

Almut Caspary, HE and Science lead for the EU region at the British Council, confirmed to University World News that Erasmus+ funding that could not be spent due to the COVID-19 crisis would be available for the next academic year at least and that institutions could use that money to help incoming EU students seeking placements in the UK.

She also pointed out that EU universities can use up to 20% of Erasmus+ funding for mobilities to a number of countries outside the European Union, including the UK.

Among those celebrating the larger-than-expected number of successful bids to the Turing Scheme is Rowena Kidger, global opportunities manager at Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales. She told University World News that the university intended to use unspent Erasmus+ funding over the next year or so to continue working with EU partners to support Erasmus placements until 2023.

She said: “At Cardiff Met, we are committed to supporting students to not only achieve their full academic potential but also in becoming confident global citizens with a range of soft skills that will attract prospective employers’ attentions.

“So, we’re delighted to have been awarded £177,130 from the Turing scheme to support 90 students, over half from a widening participation background, to either study or work abroad in 14 different countries.

“This will be on top of the 400 students a year funded for mobilities, via the Erasmus scheme and Santander and the Cardiff Met-funded Go Bursary scheme.”

Excitement on social media

The announcement about the larger-than-expected Turing study-abroad numbers caused great excitement on social media channels, especially LinkedIn.

Aisling Conboy, international higher education specialist at the UK’s Department for International Trade, posted: “I think it is great to have a funded scheme which facilitates short-term mobility too and has a focus on attracting students from disadvantaged backgrounds to apply to study abroad.”

This led to Beatriz Alvarenga, a higher education specialist in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, to comment: “Great program! It sounds to me that it has a lot of similarities with Science without Borders, from Brazil.”

To which Conboy replied: “Yes I think Turing has similarities with Science Without Borders and both schemes have similar ambitions.”

The Turing Scheme is named after pioneering UK war hero and father of modern computing Alan Turing, who studied abroad at Princeton University before going on to crack the Enigma code in World War II. The programme is being delivered by a consortium of the British Council and Ecorys UK.

Nic Mitchell is a UK-based freelance international higher education journalist and PR consultant who blogs at www.delacourcommunications.com.