Turn your ambitions into reality with funding to help you volunteer or undertake a work placement abroad in 2025/26.

The Turing Scheme is the UK government’s programme to provide funding for international opportunities in education and training across the world.

Through this scheme, Bath Spa University is able to provide a limited number of grants for mobilities in the 2025/26 academic year. As long as you fully complete your placement, the grant does not need to be returned to BSU.

The grant is designed to be used to cover some costs towards your trip abroad, such as flights, insurance, accommodation and other living expenses.

Criteria

This grant is aimed at students who meet the Turing Scheme’s definition of ‘disadvantaged’ and are going abroad to undertake a work or volunteering placement. 

In summary:

  • Your placement must be at least 14 days long, or 15 days if outside Europe; on placements that last the minimum 14 days, there must be at least 10 work or study days
  • Students with Special educational or additional needs and a disability (SEND) can go on placements for 7 days
  • Placements can only be funded up until 31 August 2026
  • You cannot apply for retrospective funding
  • Undergraduate students, postgraduate students and recent graduates can apply.

Please find a more detailed breakdown below.

To qualify for this funding, you must be either: 

  • a student studying a BSU course at either Newton Park, Locksbrook or BSU London
  • a recent graduate completing your placement within 12 months of completing your qualification with BSU. You do not need to be selected for Turing Scheme funding before you graduate.

and

  • meet the Turing Scheme’s definition of ‘disadvantaged’ – see below for details.

You do not need to be a UK national, and there is no maximum age limit. Please note that Turing do not fund staff accompanying higher education students on placements. 

Unfortunately, you are not eligible if you:

  • do not meet the Turing Scheme’s definition of ‘disadvantaged’ 
  • are located overseas and studying UK or British overseas territory qualifications remotely 
  • permanently studying at overseas campuses of UK or British overseas territory providers.

The Turing Scheme defines disadvantaged students as meeting any of the following criteria: 

  • 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
  • a refugee or an asylum seeker.


If you are unsure if you qualify for this funding, please contact BSUexchange@bathspa.ac.uk or pop into the Go Global Office (NP.MH.G.02) and we can check this for you.

Your placement can be a work, study (including research) or volunteering placement that helps you to develop skills and improve your education and career prospects.

The placement must take place during the academic year, between 1 September 2025 and 31 August 2026.

Where the placement is located in a country where the academic term date begins outside of these dates, we are able to provide funding to support this as long as most of the placement is within the date range.

Please note that we are only allowed to provide funding for the part of the placement taking place between 1 September 2025 and 31 August 2026.

Placement lengths:

  • If you are a current student, your placement needs to be a minimum of 14 days and a maximum of 12 months, and you can study, do work experience or volunteer abroad. 
  • If you are a recent graduate, your placement needs to be a minimum of 14 days and a maximum of 12 months, and you can do work experience or volunteer abroad.
  • On placements that last the minimum 14 days, there must be at least 10 work or study days
  • Placement durations may include weekends and national holidays, as well as days spent on the outbound journey to the placement destination from the UK and the return journey
  • Placements outside Europe, except skills competition placements, must last a minimum of 15 days
  • Students and apprentices with Special educational or additional needs and a disability, (SEND) can go on placements for 7 days.

You can go to both public or private organisations outside the UK which are active in education, training or the labour market.

Placements can take place in any destination or territory, but you must follow official foreign travel advice.

Please speak to the Go Global team about your plans, or if you are still figuring them out, ask us what the next steps are.

Organisations can be:

  • higher education providers
  • small, medium or large enterprises, including social enterprises
  • local, regional or national public bodies
  • social partners or other representatives of working life, including chambers of commerce, craft, professional associations, trade unions and research institutes
  • foundations
  • schools, institutes or educational centres at any stage, from primary to upper secondary education, including vocational and adult education
  • non-profit organisations, associations and non-government organisations
  • bodies providing career guidance, professional counselling or information services.

Turing Scheme funding is a contribution towards the costs of international educational placements.

You should not use Turing Scheme funding towards any costs that are already covered by another source of funding, such as the SFE student travel reimbursement.

BSU will issue you with a Turing Scheme Grant Agreement. As part of this agreement, each student has to agree to the Terms and Conditions in order to receive the funding. This is for all placements no matter the length, and grants will be issued in stages: 

  • If you are a current student, you will receive 80% of the funding at the beginning of your placement, once all required documentation has been sent to Go Global. You will receive the final 20% at the end of your placement once the final questionnaire has been completed 
  • If you are a recent graduate, once all required documentation has been sent to Go Global, you will receive your funding in 3 instalments, with the final 20% at the end of your placement once the final questionnaire has been completed.

Contribution to living costs

A portion of the Turing Scheme funding is to help with daily living costs for each student. The amount each student can receive depends on the group the destination is in.  

Groups are based on the Turing Scheme’s 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, and 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 14 to 56 days

Placement duration Group 1 Group 2
14 to 56 days   £23 per day £21 per day
57 to 365 days £18 per day £16 per day

Travel funding

The Turing Scheme Global Placement award will provide funding towards the direct costs of travel, for one return journey including transfers. Funding is a set travel grant for each destination.

All students awarded this money must supply the Go Global Team with evidence of the actual travel costs as well as a copy of their travel record (boarding pass etc).

Students are required to return any travel funding that is not spent on eligible travel activity to the Turing Scheme, via BSU’s Go Global Team. 

Readiness to travel funding

Through the Turing Scheme we can re-imburse students from disadvantaged backgrounds for the costs associated with preparing to travel.

This ‘readiness to travel’ funding is only for: 

  • passports 
  • visa applications and reasonable associated costs such as translated documents and police certificates 
  • vaccines 
  • travel insurance 
  • medical certificates.

You should apply using estimated costs associated with the items. They will be paid as actual costs rather than at set rates.

Extra funding for students with SEND

Through the Turing Scheme, BSU will provide extra funding for SEND students to support the additional costs that SEND students may face on international placements. For example, visits of up to 3 days where staff or students may need to visit the host destination to carry out pre-placement checks. 

You must outline why you need the funds when you apply for the scheme. These costs will be paid as actual costs rather than based on set rates.

When students are in receipt of Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA), you should not apply for costs that are already funded by DSA. You can still apply for SEND support for costs that are not funded through DSA.

How to apply

Please apply by using the online application form on the AppHub (student login required). Select the 'Scholarship Applications' menu, then choose ‘BSU funds for International Travel’ from the Add Application drop down menu.

Applications for the Turing Scheme Global Placement are assessed on a rolling basis with a deadline of the first day of each month. The proposed travel should not begin within six weeks of the application deadline.

All applications for international travel funding in 2025/26 will close at 09:00 on 1 July 2026.

Please be aware that this is a shared application process with BSU’s International Travel Fund and Turing Global Placement Scheme. Applicants indicate their preferred fund when applying but will be assessed for all. If successful, only the most appropriate fund will be offered.

We recommend you access the application form in advance to check what is needed.

Applicants should be aware that the application requirements include:

  • A named referee. This must be your BSU tutor, course leader or other appropriate BSU staff member who can act as a referee to support your application. Before applying, you should discuss your plans with them and seek their agreement to act as your referee
  • A supporting statement. In approx. 500 words, you should include a statement that describes what activities you will be undertaking during the trip and how these will benefit your current studies and future career plans
  • Supporting documentation. Evidence to support the costs outlined in your application should be added to the online application as attachments.

Please ensure that you read the award Terms and Conditions, and that all sections of the form are fully completed before submission. 

Applications will be assessed and successful applicants selected by the Travel Awards panel. The panel will typically meet within two weeks of each monthly deadline and applicants should expect to hear an outcome within six weeks of their chosen application deadline.

If you are successful, a coordinator from the applicable fund team will liaise with you to progress your award and provide further instructions. We will ask you to sign a grant agreement document and complete a risk assessment. The funds will be paid to you before you are due to travel abroad.

Successful recipients will be subject to the following conditions:

  • The award must be used for the purpose stated on your application form.
  • If, by reason of any emergency or other circumstance, the Award holder is unable to complete the international placement, he or she will be required to refund all or part of the Award as may be considered reasonable.
  • Recipients will be expected to complete all paperwork including – but not limited to – risk assessment, certificate of attendance and the feedback questionnaire that will be emailed once the placement has been completed. Comments from the feedback questionnaire may be used on the University website or in other promotional material.
  • Recipients will support the University with evidence for travel and spend, as required for BSU by the Turing Scheme.

Contact us

If you have any questions or require assistance completing the application form, please email the Go Global Team via BSUexchange@bathspa.ac.uk.