Four in five universities struggle on Turing Scheme applications

A vast majority of higher education providers reported difficulties with the application process for the UK’s Turing Scheme, according to new research that has evaluated its first year in operation.

The government’s flagship study abroad programme was created to fund placements for UK students, both in Europe and globally, as a replacement for the Erasmus+ initiative, following the country’s exit from the European Union in December 2020.

A government-commissioned independent evaluation report on how the scheme fared in 2021-22, published on 3 January, found that 79 per cent of higher education providers reported applying to join the scheme so they could access funding to send their students abroad was either “very” or “fairly” difficult.

The main challenges were the timing and length of the application window and the extent of detailed forecasting needed when filling out the form, the report says. 

Many also complained that the six-week timescale for completing the form was too short, particularly given that the application window fell over the Easter period.

In comparison, just 29 per cent of schools and 23 per cent of further education providers, who also participate in the scheme, reported difficulties applying. 

The evaluators have recommended that the government open the application window earlier, introduce a downloadable form and consider reducing the level of detail requested in response to the criticism.

On average, providers had 191 international placements planned for the first year of the scheme but delivered only half of those.

The report says this was largely because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which affected the placements themselves as well as the recruitment of students in the first place, who were reluctant to commit due to uncertainty that placements would go ahead.

Providers also reported difficulty in achieving their targets for sending students from disadvantaged backgrounds abroad, which was blamed on the level of funding being too low to cover all the costs of participation.

The issues that universities experienced were not great enough to deter enthusiasm for the next year of the scheme, with 86 per cent of higher education providers re-applying for funding.

But only 11 per cent of them said there had been improvements to the application process.

The UK government decided to quit Erasmus+ over what it saw as unacceptably high costs and announced plans for its own Turing scheme, named after pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing, in 2020. Last year, a House of Lords report recommended the country should rejoin the EU initiative. 

With £110 million in funding provided, the first year of the scheme was expected to enable up to 35,000 students to undertake international study or work placements.

Data in the latest report reveals a total of 20,822 participants went on placements that year – 63 per cent of whom were from higher education settings.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com