Turing Scheme Terms and Conditions

The Turing Scheme is the UK government’s flagship student mobility funding programme that provides funding to UK organisations to unlock life-changing experiences across the world for their students.  

The Funding is a contribution towards the cost of studying abroad to provide you with the chance to develop new skills, gain vital international experience and boost your employability. You can also use the funding to develop your language skills and a deeper understanding of other cultures. 

To be eligible for Turing Scheme funding, you must:   

• have been accepted by the Study Abroad and Exchange team as being eligible for Turing Scheme funding.   

• have completed an online pre-departure questionnaire and received formal approval from Manchester Metropolitan University to travel abroad to undertake your mobility placement at your host organisation.   

• complete all of the required Stage 1 and Stage 2 Turing Scheme documentation –  Details can be found under the heading “Documentation” within these terms and conditions. 

• remain a registered student at Manchester Metropolitan University, be actively undertaking your mobility placement, and physically living in your host country abroad for the full duration of the mobility period.   

• Meet all of the Turing Scheme requirements set out in these Terms and Conditions.  

Turing Scheme Grant Rates for 2024 - 2025 academic year  

The Turing Scheme provides funding to help with daily living costs. 

The amount you can receive depends on the group the destination is in. 

Groups are based on an assessment of the general cost of living in those destinations: 

• group 1 – higher cost of living 

• group 2 – lower cost of living 

Information on the destinations in each group is available in the list of destinations and grant rates. 

There are different rates depending on the length of the placement. Students who complete a placement lasting more than 57 days will receive the 57 to 365 days rate for the whole placement, including the first 28 to 56 days. 

The standard funding amount for students is: 

The higher rate funding amount for students who meet the criteria for disadvantage within the Turing Scheme  is: 

A higher grant rate plus travel grant is available to students who meet the Turing Scheme criteria for disadvantage,  as follows:    

• someone with an annual household income of £25,000 or less 

• someone who receives Universal Credit or income-related benefits because they are financially supporting: 

• themselves 

• themselves and someone who is dependent on them, such as a child or partner 

• someone with experience of being in care or who is a care leaver – including anyone who is or has been in care, or from a looked after background, at any stage of their life 

• a carer, meaning anyone who both: 

• looks after a family member, partner or friend who needs help because of their illness, frailty, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction, and cannot cope without their support 

• is not paid for this care 

• someone who is estranged – including anyone who has had no contact with their biological or adoptive parents for 12 months or more, or the relationship with their parents has broken down within the last 12 months 

• a refugee or an asylum seeker 

To make an award, we will need to assess your eligibility for higher rate funding and we will ask you to provide evidence of this. 

We can accept the following as evidence: 

• Qualifying for support by the Inclusion Service at Manchester Metropolitan University. 

• Universal credit or other income-related benefits award letter 

• Income assessment by the Student Loans Company 

• Official documentation or residence permit confirming humanitarian status as a refugee or asylum-seeker. 

If you are in receipt of a UK government student loan, you are income assessed when submitting an application to student finance for loans purposes. Manchester Metropolitan University will use this information to assess your household income level. If you are in receipt of a UK government student loan, we would advise you to contact student finance directly to confirm your HRI (household residual income) status and check that you have granted sharing of this information with Manchester Metropolitan University.  

If you are not in receipt of a UK government student loan but are eligible to apply, we will ask you to complete an income assessment with the Student Loans Company. 

If you are care experienced but do not qualify for support as a care leaver with the Inclusion Service, we will ask for any evidence that you have (either formal or informal) to confirm that you are care experienced. Being care experienced means you will have spent time living with foster carers under local authority care, in residential care (e.g. a children’s home), looked after at home under a supervision order, or in kinship care with relatives or friends, either officially (e.g. a special guardianship order) or informally without local authority support.

If you identify with any of the above criteria, please contact the Study Abroad and Exchange team at [email protected] to discuss your eligibility for the higher rate Turing Scheme funding. 

Travel funding 

The Turing Scheme provides funding towards the direct costs of travel for students who meet the Turing Scheme criteria for disadvantage for one return journey including transfers. 

Funding will be provided based on a travel grant for each destination. There is a list of destinations and grant rates. 

If actual costs are less than the published rate, you will only receive funding up to the actual cost.  

We will request evidence of the actual travel costs and travel dates and this will include: 

- booking confirmation (showing the passenger name and cost)  
  
- boarding pass (screenshot / download or scan)  

If your total travel claims exceed the granted amount, we will first grant your funding up to the travel grant rate specified for your destination and then consider the additional amount as a request for additional funding. Requests for additional travel grant funds are subject to availability within our overall Turing Scheme travel grant budget and cannot be guaranteed.  

If you are successful in being awarded Turing Scheme funding for your mobility placement abroad, you will be informed of your total mobility grant allowance.   

Your total mobility grant allowance is calculated according to the actual length of your mobility period abroad in days, as specified in the Certificate of Start of Mobility and Certificate of End of Mobility.    

• The start date of the mobility period is the first day that you are required to be present at your host organisation -for mobility periods that start before September, your first day of funding will be 1 September 2024. 

• The end date of the mobility period is the last day you are required to be present at your host organisation – your mobility cannot be funded after 31 August 2025 

• You will receive 80% of your expected total grant allowance at the start of the mobility period subject to submission of the required Stage 1 documentation.   

• If you are eligible for a travel grant, you will receive 100% of the travel grant at the start of the mobility period subject to submission of the required documentation. 

• You will receive your second instalment of funding at the end of your mobility period abroad, upon submission of the required Stage 2 documentation.    

• If the end date on your Stage 2 documentation shows that you completed your mobility placement earlier than outlined in Certificate of Start of Mobility, your total grant allowance will be recalculated according to your actual number of mobility days at your host organisation.   

• If the end date on your Stage 2 documentation shows that you completed your mobility placement later than outlined in your Certificate of Start of Mobility and you have not had formal approval for an extension to your funding allowance, your second instalment will be paid according to the original dates outlined in the Certificate of Start of Mobility.   

• If your travel dates specified in your travel booking/tickets show that you are travelling either after the start of mobility or before the confirmed end of mobility, we will use your travel dates to confirm start and end dates. This is because you can only be funded if you are physically in the host country within the confirmed dates of your study placement abroad. 

Payments will be made to you in pound sterling into the UK bank account that you have provided to us on the Bank Form.  

Length of mobility period 

The Turing Scheme cannot fund mobility periods that are less than 28 days or more than 12 months in duration. All mobility periods abroad must end before 31 August 2025. For mobility periods that start before September, your first day of funding will be 1 September 2024. 

Travel restrictions 

Placements can take place in any destination, but you must follow official foreign travel advice (https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice). You cannot receive Turing Scheme funding if you are travelling to a destination that has a travel advisory against “all travel” or “all but essential travel”.  

Restrictions on double-funding  

The Turing Scheme prohibits double-funding of placements abroad. This means that participants should not be funded twice for the same expense. Participants cannot use Turing Scheme funding to pay for assets (e.g., IT equipment) or services (e.g., travel) where a participant is, or expects to be, in receipt of funding provided by another source for the same assets or services. For example, if you are in receipt of a Turing Scheme travel grant, you are not allowed to apply for a travel grant via Student Finance England (and vice versa).   

As part of the award of Turing Scheme funding, we will ask you to declare whether you are in receipt of any other sources of grant funding or whether you intend to apply for any other sources of grant funding. We will then assess whether this would be classed as double-funding for the Turing Scheme.  

Participants can ‘top up’ funding where one source of funding does not meet the full costs of participation in the placement. For example, if travel is more expensive than the amount of funding provided by the Turing Scheme, participants can use funding from another source to cover the additional costs of travel, although this should not exceed the actual travel costs. Similarly, if the Turing Scheme cost-of-living grant does not cover the actual cost of living abroad, participants are allowed to make up the difference between the amount available to them and their total living costs through funding from other sources.  

Changes to duration of mobility periods 

If you wish to extend the duration of your mobility period whilst abroad, you will need to make a request to [email protected] more than one month before the end of the mobility period. We cannot guarantee the availability of funding for extension requests.    

If you wish to reduce the duration of your mobility period whilst abroad, please contact the Study Abroad and Exchange team at [email protected] to discuss the academic, financial and wellbeing implications to inform your decision.    

Depending on your circumstances, you may need to pay back your grant allowance (in part or in full) if you terminate the mobility period before its expected end date.  

Manchester Metropolitan University will use Turing Scheme participant information in accordance with the privacy notice information provided during the mobility application stage.

The University is required, as part of the Turing Scheme, to share information about all participants with the Department for Education, the Turing Scheme Delivery Partner. In participating in the Turing Scheme, you acknowledge that the following information will be shared with the DfE, via the Turing Scheme Live Reporting Tool as part of the Turing reporting requirements:  

• First name and last name   

• Email address and telephone number, or the email address and telephone number of the person accompanying you if you are under 18   

• Date of birth   

• Learner or student ID number / HUSID ID   

• Home postcode   

• Nationality   

• Ethnicity   

• Gender   

• Level of education   

• Whether you have a special educational need or a disability   

• Whether you are eligible for extra financial support provided to students who receive funding from the scheme and who are from disadvantaged backgrounds 

• Details of your host organization location and contact information Start and end dates of your placement   

For further information about how the DfE use your information, please see their privacy notice: Privacy notice for the Turing Scheme  - Turing Scheme (apply-for-turing-scheme-study-abroad-funding.service.gov.uk) 

Documentation you have completed in relation to the award of funding will be held for a period of 7 years from 31 August 2025 and may be shared with the DfE in case of financial audit.   

Any information that you share as part of your final report may also be shared with the DfE (Turing Scheme Delivery Partner), if requested. 

To find out more about how the Department for Education (DfE) will use your data, please refer to this link.  

To be eligible for Turing Scheme funding, you must complete all the required documentation. These are split into stage 1 and stage 2 documents, as follows: 

Stage 1 Documentation – completed at the start of your exchange 

• Student declaration – this confirms that you agree to the Turing Scheme terms and conditions. 

• Certificate of start of mobility – this is signed by your host university to confirm the start of your exchange. 

• Travel Grant Funding Options 2024 – 2025 form – this tells us about your travel expenses and sources of any additional funding. 

• Bank form – this tells us which bank account to pay your funds into 

• Career Edge questionnaire (first of two) – this is used to assess the impact of your exchange on your professional skills and career outlook. 

Stage 2 Documentation – completed at the end of your exchange. 

• Certificate of end of mobility – this is signed by your host university to confirm the start and end dates of your exchange. 

• Career Edge questionnaire (second of two) – this is used to assess the impact of your exchange on your professional skills and career outlook. 

• Final report form – this is your chance to give us feedback on your exchange. 

Further guidance on how to complete these steps will be sent to you via email.