Turing Scheme: apply for funding for international placements
Information on applying for funding for international study and work placements for schools, further education providers and higher education providers.
Applications for the Turing Scheme are now open.
This guidance helps UK and British overseas territories education and training providers, including schools, further education (FE) and higher education (HE) providers, to prepare and submit high-quality applications for Turing Scheme funding for the 2026 to 2027 academic year.
It includes:
- Application process – how to check eligibility, how to apply, checks, assessment and funding allocation, and next steps
- Assessment criteria – guidance on the questions, what makes a strong application, how applications will be assessed and scoring criteria used by independent assessors
Education providers apply for Turing Scheme funding on behalf of their students and apprentices. Students and apprentices cannot apply directly to the Department for Education (DfE) and should contact their education or training provider to find out more about funding.
Part 1: Application process
This section explains how to apply for Turing Scheme funding. Following these steps will ensure your application addresses the assessment criteria and allows the independent assessor to score your proposal fairly.
If you have any questions about applying, contact us.
1. Check your eligibility
Before you apply, make sure your organisation is eligible for Turing Scheme funding.
The scheme has 3 funding streams which are based on the type of education and training that organisations in the sector provide. You should check the eligibility and grant rules for the route you are applying to:
If you are applying for funding in 2 sectors, you must submit separate applications for each route. You can only make one application per sector. You can apply for multiple students going to multiple destinations in a single application.
Schools and FE providers can also come together to form a consortium application. You can find more information on consortiums in the Turing Scheme sector guidance.
We cannot confirm your eligibility for Turing Scheme funding before you submit your application. It is your responsibility to check the criteria and ensure your organisation meets the requirements.
2. Prepare your application
To apply for funding, you will need to provide details on the placements you plan to deliver.
This will include:
- placement destinations
- placement durations
- numbers of students and apprentices
- whether they are from disadvantaged backgrounds or have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) – including students with additional learning needs (ALN) in Wales and additional support needs (ASN) in Scotland
For schools and FE applications, you must also include the number of accompanying adults.
Based on the student and apprentice numbers you enter, the application service will calculate the funding you could receive for:
- travel
- cost of living
- organisational support
- language support for FE applicants
You will also enter the amount of funding you want for readiness to travel and for students with SEND. You need to explain what you plan to spend it on. The Turing Scheme sector guidance contain more information on the different types of funding available to your organisation and students.
You will then answer a series of questions designed to show how well your application will deliver the scheme’s aims across the set criteria. Read this guidance carefully when preparing your application.
A placement refers to the study or work activity that you are organising for a student or group of students at a single destination. A project refers to your overall application, including all placements that you wish to facilitate for the 2026 to 2027 academic year.
3. Submit your application via the Turing Scheme funding service
Applications will open at 12:00 (noon) on Monday 26 January 2026.
Use the apply for Turing Scheme funding service to submit your application online. A is available to download and should be submitted to turingscheme.HELP@education.gov.uk.
The deadline for all applications is 16:00 on Monday 16 March 2026. Applications received after this time will not be considered.
You should note that:
- DfE is under no obligation to approve any application or make an award of funding
- you cannot claim costs from DfE for preparing or submitting your application
- award of Turing Scheme funding in one academic year does not guarantee award of Turing Scheme funding in future years
- your projects must meet safeguarding requirements in both your jurisdiction and the placement destination
- you can use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help you to write your application, but you must ensure that all of the information within your application is accurate and truthful
4. Eligibility, financial capability and due diligence checks
Once you submit your application, it will go through checks to confirm your organisation meets the Turing Scheme eligibility criteria and can manage public money responsibly.
These checks follow the guidance on Managing public money and the Government Functional Standard for Grants. These mandatory due diligence checks will be carried out in proportion to the size of the grant and the level of risk.
For education providers, we may check:
- eligibility through checks with regulators and government funding bodies
- financial viability through recent financial health assessments and inspections by regulators or government funding bodies – we may request further documents
For consortium leads, we may check:
- eligibility through checks to confirm status for non-profit membership organisations which represent education providers
- financial viability checks of accounts or bank statements, credit agencies, financial procedures, and controls to confirm financial stability
- evidence of a proper membership structure for registered non-profit organisations
For all organisations, we may check:
- legal status via Companies House, Charity Commission or equivalent
- grant-to-revenue ratio, considering the extent of your reliance on grant and other government funding, and whether the value is appropriate for the outcome delivered and the size of your organisation
- financial history to ensure your organisation is not operating in a pattern of unmanageable annual losses
- governance, including checks of ultimate beneficial owners, linked companies, directors or trustees, and conflicts of interest
- operational capacity, to confirm there are adequate internal fiscal, and administrative controls, and that your organisation has capacity to deliver, including previous performance when managing public money
- any outstanding activities from grant funds from previous Turing Scheme funding rounds
- security risks to national security, such as overseas ownership or financing or linked entities
These checks are specific to the Turing Scheme. Receiving other government funding does not guarantee eligibility or passing due diligence checks. We may request further evidence, such as audited accounts or bank statements, and we reserve the right to decline an application based on these checks.
5. Independent assessment and funding allocation
After eligibility and financial checks, your application will be assessed by an independent organisation.
Independent assessors will mark each criterion using an internal scoring process.
Assessors can only score based on the information that is contained within the application and will not consider any other information.
As part of DfE’s allocation decision on who receives funding, and how much, DfE will use the scores provided by the independent assessors. DfE will also consider the proportion of students from a disadvantaged background provided for in the application.
If providers have received Turing Scheme funding in previous years, DfE may also consider whether the provider has persistently underspent their previously allocated funding. More information about how DfE allocates funding is set out in the Turing Scheme sector guidance.
6. Applicants informed of outcomes
We will email you the outcome in June 2026. A full list of successful applicants will be published after all outcomes are confirmed.
If you are successful
If your application is approved, you will receive a grant funding agreement. You must sign this before any funds are released. The agreement is legally binding and sets out your roles, responsibilities, and the terms and conditions that you need to follow to receive funds.
We expect you to deliver the aims and commitments in your application, including the proportion of placements for students and apprentices from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with SEND. If this is not possible, you must tell us why.
Before signing the agreement, we will provide details on:
- payment processes
- reporting requirements
- assurance checks
- timelines
Appeals
If you are unhappy with the outcome of the application assessment, you have the right to appeal the decision. The appeals window will open after we have shared the outcomes.
Part 2: Assessment criteria
This section introduces the criteria against which applications are assessed, as well as the questions we ask for each criterion, why they matter and what strong applicants will cover for each area.
What’s new for 2026 to 2027
- clearer guidance and prompts for each criterion
- updates to reflect the scheme’s latest aims
- more focus on explaining your choice of placement destination
What is assessed in your application
Independent assessors will assess your application across 4 sections. Each section covers a different criterion that helps us understand how well your proposal will deliver the aims of the Turing Scheme. The criteria are weighted. See the table below.
| Criterion | Description | Overall weighting | Word count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Efficient delivery | Placements are well-run, with clear plans, strong oversight, tailored safeguarding, and risk management to ensure high-quality, safe, and well-organised experiences. | 10% | 1,200 |
| 2. Enhancing transferable skills for life and careers | Placements are designed to help students and apprentices develop transferable skills, global awareness, personal growth, and where relevant, subject-specific knowledge – through structured, reflective and evidence-informed activities that support meaningful learning, challenge and progression, preparing them for success in study, life and work. | 30% | 1,000 |
| 3. Widening opportunity | Placements are inclusive and targeted, with clear plans to identify and support disadvantaged, underrepresented and SEND students and apprentices – helping them access and succeed on placements through barrier-reducing approaches aligned with organisational access goals. | 30% | 1,000 |
| 4. Driving value for money | – | 30% | – |
| 4a. Destination justification | Destinations are chosen to enrich student and apprentice outcomes, strengthen international partnerships, and offer better value than alternatives - with clear, evidence-informed decisions and practical steps to reduce environmental impact. | – | 400 |
| 4b. Cost-effectiveness | Funding is used efficiently and responsibly to deliver high-quality placements, with strong financial oversight, cost-saving measures that protect safety and wellbeing, and a focus on long-term impact for learners and institutions. | – | 400 |
| 4c. Measuring impact | Placements are monitored and evaluated to demonstrate value for money and student benefit, using reliable methods and evidence proportionate to provider size and context to track outcomes, assess support for priority groups and inform future improvements and sector learnings. | – | 500 |
How to write a strong response
Each criterion includes prompts to guide your answer. The next section explains what a strong response looks like – including the types of content, evidence and examples assessors expect.
You should approach your application in a way that’s proportionate to your organisation’s size and context. This means framing your response appropriately, focusing on what’s most relevant, and making good use of the available word count.
For example:
- a large HE provider should take a strategic approach – setting out its overall approach, informed by robust data and systems, and using targeted examples to show how it meets the relevant criteria, but not describing every placement
- a smaller provider – such as a school sending 30 pupils abroad – should respond directly to each question prompt, focusing on clear, practical explanations and evidence, being specific about each placement
In general, strong responses:
- use plain English
- are specific – give clear examples
- answer every part of the question
- use evidence – include relevant data or feedback, but avoid repeating points
Part 3: Assessment questions and prompts
1. Efficient delivery
Assessment question: Tell us how you will run placements so they are well-organised and high-quality. Include how they will work in practice, covering: planning and capacity, risk and safeguarding, and governance
We want to make sure applicants have the right plans, people and systems in place to run placements smoothly and safely.
This question helps us check that projects are well-organised, with clear timelines, strong oversight and tailored safeguarding. It also ensures providers have thought through risks and how they’ll manage them.
Strong responses to this question will cover:
- your timeline and key milestones, and how your team structure, systems and experience will manage delivery effectively
- the main risks to your project and how you will mitigate them, including contingency plans and safeguarding tailored to placement types and student and apprentice needs
- who is responsible for oversight and decision making, and how you will ensure accountability, transparency and quality monitoring
If you plan to work with a third-party organisation to deliver placements, your response should explain how both your organisation and the third-party will manage delivery. Avoid simply listing the third-party’s standard policies – show how these will be applied in practice and how you will maintain oversight and accountability.
2. Enhancing transferable skills for life and careers
Assessment question: Tell us the student and apprentice outcomes your placements aim to deliver across the categories of transferable skills, intercultural learning and global awareness, personal development, and where relevant, subject-specific knowledge and skills. Describe why these matter for your students’ studies, lives and future careers, and how your placement design supports them to achieve these, including through structured, reflective and evidence-based activities.
The Turing Scheme funds placements that help students and apprentices enhance the outcomes they need to succeed in life and careers across the following categories:
- Transferable skills – abilities that can be applied in different settings, supporting success in study, employment and everyday life. Examples may include communicating clearly, solving problems, working collaboratively, adapting to new situations and using digital tools effectively. These skills help students and apprentices adapt and thrive in a changing global economy
- Intercultural learning and global awareness – understanding and respecting different cultures and perspectives, and being able to engage confidently in diverse environments
- Personal development – growth in confidence, independence, resilience and self-awareness to help students and apprentices manage change and overcome challenges. This supports students to become resourceful and confident in unfamiliar situations
- Subject-specific knowledge and skills (where relevant) – knowledge or skills directly linked to a student’s course or field of study, gained through practical experience or exposure to international approaches. This strengthens academic learning and professional readiness
Strong responses to this question will cover:
- which specific student and apprentice outcomes your placements will deliver across each of the above categories (subject-specific knowledge only if relevant). Make these outcomes clear and observable, and show what evidence or insight that informed your choice
- why these outcomes matter most to your students and apprentices, including how they will support their current studies and training, and future careers and lives, and back this up with evidence
- how your placement structure and activities are designed to help students and apprentices achieve these outcomes, including how placements are sufficiently challenging, supportive and tailored, how you will build in learning, reflection and progression to reinforce impact, and how your design is based on evidence or proven practice
3. Widening opportunity
Assessment question: Tell us who will take part in your placements, any barriers they face, and how you will identify, prioritise and support students and apprentices with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and those from underrepresented backgrounds to access placements and succeed on them.
You should read the Turing Scheme sector guidance on definitions for disadvantaged, underrepresented and SEND students and apprentices before completing this section.
The Turing Scheme aims to make international placements accessible to students and apprentices who face additional barriers. Your response should show how your placements will help these students and apprentices take part and succeed, and why this matters. This supports the scheme’s aim of widening opportunity and ensuring funding reaches those who need it most.
Placements should prioritise students:
- from disadvantaged backgrounds
- from groups underrepresented in international placements
- with SEND
Strong responses to this question will cover:
- an overview of the students and apprentices you plan to fund from these groups and how this aligns with your organisation’s access and participation goals and wider student population demographics, and back this up with evidence – for example, institutional data or equality monitoring
- the main challenges these students and apprentices face in accessing placements and how additional Turing funding for disadvantaged and SEND students and apprentices will help overcome these barriers, using evidence or insight where possible
- how you will identify, recruit and prioritise these students and apprentices fairly, while protecting confidentiality, and show how your approach is informed by evidence or proven practice
- how you will tailor support to these students and apprentices before, during and after placements to make them inclusive and accessible, and show how this is based on evidence or experience of what works
You should not include individual personal details of your students and apprentices at the application stage.
4. Driving value for money
This section is divided into 3 parts because value for money underpins every aspect of the Turing Scheme. Public funding must be used responsibly to deliver maximum impact for students and apprentices. Your response should explain why your destination choices represent good value for money, how you will manage costs effectively, and how you will measure impact to demonstrate benefits and inform future improvements
4a. Destination justification
Assessment question: Explain why you’ve chosen your destination(s) by showing how they support your student and apprentice outcomes, strengthen international partnerships, offer better value for money than other options, and minimise environmental impact.
As a programme with global reach, we want to make sure destinations are chosen for their ability to:
- enrich learning
- build long-term international relationships
- offer value for money
- minimise environmental impact
Your response should show how your choices reflect these principles and support the scheme’s mission to give students meaningful opportunities in an international context.
Strong responses to this question will cover:
- how your chosen destination(s) will help deliver the student and apprentice outcomes set out in the enhancing transferable skills section of your application
- how your destination(s) will help build or strengthen long-term partnerships with international host organisations
- how you assessed the cost-effectiveness of your destination(s) and why they offer better value than other options, considering factors such as travel costs, cost of living, and overall value of the experience for students and apprentices
- how you considered sustainability when choosing your destination(s), including the environmental impact of your travel plans and the steps you will take to minimise it
Providers with multiple projects should describe their overall approach rather than outlining each placement individually.
4b. Cost effectiveness
Assessment question: Explain how you will use funding efficiently and responsibly to deliver high-quality placements. Show how you’ll control costs, achieve value for money (VfM), avoid duplication, and protect learner safety and wellbeing while supporting long-term benefits to your students and apprentices, as well as institutions (where relevant).
The Turing Scheme is funded by public money and must deliver maximum impact for students and apprentices while ensuring strong financial stewardship.
Your response should demonstrate how you will manage costs effectively, achieve value for money, and comply with principles of Managing public money and Government Functional Standard for Grants.
We expect applicants to show practical steps that protect safety and quality, avoid waste, and support long-term benefits for learners and institutions.
Strong responses to this question will cover:
- how you will ensure value for money and prevent misuse of funds, including clear internal checks, oversight, and – if using third party subcontractors – how you assessed and selected them through robust due diligence and value for money checks, and how you will monitor their performance
- the strategies you will use to reduce costs and avoid duplication, such as sharing delivery, economies of scale, or using existing infrastructure
- how staffing levels (including accompanying staff for schools and FE) will support learners without overspending
- how cost-saving measures will still protect safety and wellbeing, especially for SEND and vulnerable students and apprentices
- how your approach supports longer-term savings or benefits
4c. Measuring impact
Assessment question: Explain how you will evaluate your placements to show they deliver value for money, including how you’ll measure student and apprentice outcomes, check if support is working for targeted students and apprentices, collect reliable evidence, and use your findings to improve future delivery and share learning.
To deliver real benefits for students and strong value for public money, evaluation is essential to learn what works and maximise impact.
Your response should show how you will measure success in a way that is proportionate and reliable, check whether support for disadvantaged, underrepresented and SEND students is effective, and use findings to improve future placements and share learning across the sector.
Strong responses to this question will cover:
- how you will measure the outcomes described in the enhancing transferable skills section and track student progress before and after placements
- how you will check whether targeted students and apprentices (including SEND, disadvantaged and underrepresented groups – as identified in the widening opportunity section) are taking part in placements and achieving outcomes, and whether your support helped them
- what data you will collect, how you will collect it, and how you will ensure evidence is meaningful, reliable and proportionate
- how you will use and share findings to improve future delivery and inform how international mobility can be used to support wider goals (such as institutional or national priorities)
Updates to this page
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Updated to reflect that applications are now open. Added the grant calculator tool and added the Welsh language application form to both.
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Updated the guidance with information on applying for the 2026 to 2027 academic year.
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Updated to reflect that Turing Scheme applications for the 2025 to 2026 academic year are now closed.
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Added Welsh translation.
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Updated as applications for the Turing Scheme are now open.
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Applications for the 2024 to 2025 academic year of the scheme are now closed.
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Added Welsh version of the guidance now applications are open for the 2024 to 2025 academic year. The grant calculator has also been updated.
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Updated the 'Turing Scheme: apply for funding for international placements' page to reflect current Turing Scheme dates and processes. Added links to the assessment questions and grant calculator. Temporarily removed Welsh language version to be updated.
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Added Welsh language version of the guidance.
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First published.