From Australia to Zimbabwe: what next for temporary study and work abroad?

Educational exchange programmes have existed for many years, providing students with opportunities to experience cultures outside of their home country. In March 2021, the Government launched the Turing Scheme, the UK’s new global programme for students to study and work abroad. How will it help students, learners and pupils to develop personally and academically? And what might it mean for rural communities? Jessica Sellick investigates. 

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The Erasmus programme was launched in 1987 with 11 participating European Union Member States, including the UK. The programme enabled students to study in another European county or a ‘partner country’ elsewhere in the world by funding their grants and waiving their tuition fees. In 2014, the programme became Erasmus+ and expanded to include apprentices, volunteers, staff and youth exchanges and jobseekers. In December 2020 the Government announced that the UK would no longer participate in the Erasmus+ programme, and that it would be replaced by the Turing Scheme. What is the new scheme and what does it mean for rural England? I offer four points. 

1. What is the Turing Scheme?The Turing Scheme is the UK’s global programme for students to study and work abroad. It provides funding to organisations in the higher education, schools, further education, vocational education and training sectors. The scheme opened for funding applications for the first time in March 2021. Funding is open to UK and British Overseas Territories in the education and training sector. The scheme is intended to allow organisations to provide students, learners and pupils with a chance to develop new skills, gain international experience, boost their employability, develop language skills, build relationships with international peers and have a better understanding of other cultures. £100 million has been made available for the academic year 2021-2022. 

The scheme itself is named after Alan Turing, a cryptographer who was influential in the development of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, and renowned for his work on cracking Nazi codes at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. Turing has an extensive legacy of statues and things named after him – from an annual award for computer science innovations, through to appearing on the current Bank of England. He was also named the greatest person of the 20th century by a BBC audience in 2019. Turing’s father’s civil service career saw him travel between the UK and India; and Turing himself studied at Princeton University in the United States before returning to the UK for a postdoctoral position at Cambridge. 

2. How does it work? The Government has said the new scheme is underpinned by a desire to promote social mobility and provide value-for-money for the UK taxpayer. At its launch on 12 March 2021, the Prime Minister described how: “the Turing Scheme is a truly global programme with every country in the world eligible to partner with UK universities, schools and colleges. It is also levelling up in action, as the scheme seeks to help students of all income groups from across the country experience fantastic education opportunities in any country they choose”. This view was echoed by Gavin Williamson, then Education Secretary: “…[the scheme] will open up more opportunities for international education and travel to all of our students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds who were less likely to benefit from the previous EU scheme”.  

Projects funded under the scheme must cover four core objectives: 

1. Global Britain – the scheme aims to support high-quality placements, enhance existing partnerships and encourage the forging of new relationships across the world. 
2. Levelling up– the scheme should help and promote equal access and opportunities for all students, learners and pupils regardless of background. 
3. Developing key skills– projects should give participants the hard and soft skills sought by employers and bridge the gap between education and work. 
4. Value for UK taxpayers– projects should optimise social value in terms of potential costs, benefits and risks. 

The scheme is managed by The British Council and Ecorys, a consortium working on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE) that previously delivered the Erasmus+ scheme in the UK.  

Applications are open to organisations only, who apply through the application portal. Participants cannot apply directly and must go through a funded organisation. The online process asks organisations to provide an overview of their project, proposed activities, how participants will be selected and their budget. 

Applications are assessed by an external panel of experts who consider how well projects address the four core objectives, and the design and implementation of activities. Financial capacity checks are also carried out on each applicant. The programme guide contains information on eligibility criteria and grant rates. 

The first round deadline for HE applications was 9 April 2021 and for FE, vocational and school applications 7 May 2021. 

In August 2021, the funding results of round 1 were announced with 363 applications from universities, schools and further education and training providers approved from the 412 applications received. £96,215,682.85 of grant funding has been allocated to provide 40,032 participants with education and training placements in 150 destination countries and territories from around the world. Placements will vary from 4 weeks to 12 months, with 47.8% of the funding overall allocated to participants identified as coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

England has received 84.8% of the approved funding, amounting to £81,569,974.85. This has been awarded to 309 projects comprising: 111 in higher education (with £56,043,934.25 of grant allocated), 93 in further and vocational education (£19,012,643.00) and 105 to schools (£6,513,397.60). Projects have to be delivered between 1 September 2021 and 31 August 2022. The top destinations for higher education participants are the United States (13.49%), China (6.4%) and Canada (6.09%); for further education and vocational participants Spain (19.66%), France (8.89%) and the United States (6.9%); and for school participants France (22.7%), Spain (17.49%) and China (10.26%). A further bidding window(s) may open if there is sufficient excess funding – and contingency arrangements will be considered if COVID-19 persists in autumn-winter 2021. 

3. What are the benefits – and are there any drawbacks? A commentary by the think tank UK in a changing Europe (UKICE) argues that whilst the funding model for the Turing Scheme has been copied across from Erasmus+ (i.e., help with living costs, with amounts varying according to destination); the amounts available under the Turing Scheme are less generous than they were under Erasmus+, particularly for disadvantaged students. For example, a maximum of £490 per month is available under Turing for disadvantaged students (£380 for others) for a stay of 3-12 months – and this compares with €520 (approximately £445) under Erasmus+, rising to €720 (approximately £630) for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Under Erasmus+, up to £1,315 is available for all participants towards travel costs but Turing only offers support to those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Under Erasmus+, institutions cannot charge fees to incoming students – the basis of the programme is that students are exchanged on a reciprocal, fee-waiver basis. The Turing Scheme fails to specify that students cannot be charged fees. 

Other commentators have queried if the Turing Scheme means UK organisations will have to individually negotiate exchange agreements through bilateral contracts? Observers have also highlighted the time and resources required to promote the scheme to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Nor does the scheme currently pay for collaborative projects, where institutions in the UK can partner with institutions in other countries to pilot new ideas or share practice and resources. 

The Turing Scheme does not include funding for participants from overseas to come to the UK – with an expectation that such costs and similar schemes will be operated by other Governments and institutions. DfE data on Erasmus+ students coming to live and study in the UK suggested they contributed some £440 million in 2018. Will the Turing scheme focus on social mobility, levelling up and value-for-money lead to a global outward looking culture on campuses in the UK? As part of its International Student Strategy, the DfE believes that the scheme will increase education exports to £35 billion a year and host 600,000 international HE students in the UK each year by 2030. Yet the scheme is currently viewed as focusing on outbound students. 

Universities UK International (UUKi)  describes ‘internationalisation at home’ as a way of offering international experiences to non-mobile students – citing the combined challenges of COVID-19 and climate change as providing further impetus for such schemes. UUKi draws upon examples from the UK, Australia and the United States. This includes the Language in Motion (LiM), a programme at Juniata College in rural Pennsylvania, which enables students who know another language or culture to share that knowledge and excitement in school classrooms. 

Research by UUKi in 2019 found graduates who participated in short-term mobility programmes had an unemployment rate of 2.3%, compared with 4.2% of non-mobile peers; and that 86.7% of students who participated in short-term mobility were in a graduate job 6 months after graduating, compared to 73.2% of non-mobile graduates. 

4. What does it mean for rural England?The round 1 funding results for the Turing Scheme do not include a breakdown of the activities that will take place within institutions and destinations. Within one month of the end of activity, all project organisations will be required to submit a final report.

In parallel to the Turing Scheme launch, the European Commission adopted its work programme for Erasmus+ 2021-2027. With a budget of €26.2 billion (compared to €14.7 billion in 2014-2020), the programme will fund projects supporting 10 million participants of all ages and backgrounds across Europe. The 2021 programme guide references enhanced opportunities for people living in rural and remote communities to participate (Inclusive Erasmus+); and pays special attention to rural development (e.g. sustainable farming, natural resource management, soil protection, bio-agriculture). 

Under the strapline ‘let’s go on rural Erasmus’, and cited as scholarship to ‘develop your professional profile’, the University of Zaragoza in Spain has been running the Desafío (Challenge) programme. 24 students can undertake internships in areas with less than 3,000 inhabitants. They receive reimbursement for lodging and meals, as well as a salary of €300 per month. Similarly, the UCLM-Rural programme at the University of Castile-La Mancha allows students to complete their training through the development of paid external internships in companies, institutions and associations in rural areas and in sparsely populated towns in Castilla-La Mancha. These schemes are designed to ‘anchor’ young people in rural areas, promote employment and tackle rural depopulation. The positive feedback from these schemes led the Spanish Government to announce in July 2021 that they are to develop this model throughout rural Spain. The Campus Rural Programme will offer 200 university students in 2021-2022 with opportunities to do an internship in the countryside for 3-5 months, receiving a gross salary of €1,000 per month. Again, the internship aims to promote work in rural areas and keep students in Spain after graduation. 

Looking at the UK, what would a ‘rural’ Turing Scheme look like? What would your indicative destinations and projects be? And, going forward, how can we use schemes such as Turing to encourage more participants to study and work in rural areas; and ultimately increase the number of young people who choose to live, work and invest in rural places back in the UK?  

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Jessica is a researcher/project manager at Rose Regeneration and a senior research fellow at The National Centre for Rural Health and Care (NCRHC). Her current work includes supporting health commissioners and providers to measure their response to COVID-19 and with future planning; and evaluating two employability programmes helping people furthest from the labour market. Jessica also sits on the board of a Housing Association that supports older and vulnerable people. 

She can be contacted by email jessica.sellick@roseregeneration.co.uk. 

Website: http://roseregeneration.co.uk/https://www.ncrhc.org/ 

Blog: http://ruralwords.co.uk/ 

Twitter: @RoseRegen 

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