The Turing Scheme replaced the Erasmus+ programme in 2021 but what’s the difference between the new Turing Scheme and Erasmus+? The new scheme opens a wealth of opportunities allowing British students to take up work and placements in over 150 countries around the world, including Canada, Japan, and the United States.
Unlike the Erasmus+ Programme, which was mainly EU focused, the Turing Scheme is a truly global programme with every country in the world eligible to partner with UK education settings. This year, there are over 150 countries involved.
The Turing Scheme targets all students, particularly the most disadvantaged. While the UK was part of Erasmus+, the most privileged were 1.7 times more likely to benefit from studying abroad. Through the Turing Scheme, there’s new funding for travel for disadvantaged higher education students and new funding available for travel-related costs to cover visas, passports, and related travel insurance. The 48% of people expected to take part in the Scheme this year are from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Erasmus+ only provided travel support to participants who travelled to Partner Countries, which was around just 3% of UK participants. Additionally, there’s now extra funding for visas, passports and related travel insurance. For example, a university student going to France for six months would get £335 (€390) per month under the Turing Scheme, while the Erasmus+ scheme paid £317 (€370) per month in 2020-21.
Students from the UK and the EU now face new immigration regulations. On the one hand, UK citizens may only stay in an EU country for 90 days out of every 180 without a visa. On the other hand, EU students, who travel to the UK, thanks to the Erasmus+ programme, will only be able to stay for periods of less than six months. However, if these students want to stay for a longer period, they can apply for a student visa, similar to those who want to study at university in the UK.
As with Erasmus+, we expect tuition fees to be waived by host universities. UK students going abroad for the whole academic year may also continue to qualify for a large contribution made towards their UK tuition fees for the year that they are away. In the past, UK students did not have to pay tuition fees when studying abroad under Erasmus+ because the Scheme was reciprocal - it allowed EU students to visit and study in the UK as well.
These are just some of the differences between the two funding programmes for educational trips. For further information do also read our blog Erasmus+ Vs. Turing.