The Turing Scheme

To be eligible for the Turing Scheme funding, you must meet the following criteria: 

1) Be a registered University of Newcastle student

2) Be undertaking a year or semester abroad

• the duration of your placement must be at least 14 days and no longer than 12 months (note the minimum duration for 2025/26 placements was 28 days)
• your placement must take place between 1 September and 31 August – study placements can start before and finish after these dates, but the funding will be limited to this period only
• regrettably, work placements are not eligible for Turing Funding at all if they start before 1 September or finish after 31 August

3) Must have completed a risk assessment and required documentation to a satisfactory standard

• all required documentation must be completed throughout your placement 

4) Meet one of the Newcastle Widening Participation criteria or the Extended Widening Participation criteria

You can find out more information about each criteria here.

• students with an annual household income of £40,000 or less
  • this must be registered with Student Finance England (UK students)
• care leavers and students who are care-experienced
• students who have caring responsibilities
• estranged students
• refugees and asylum seekers
• ethnic minority students who went to a UK state-funded school as the last educational establishment before attending Newcastle university 

Extended Widening Participation criteria

• students with an annual household income of between £40,000 - £62,334
  • this must be registered with Student Finance England (UK students)

The grant rate you receive will be calculated based on the length of your placement, the average cost of living in your placement destination and whether you meet the Widening Participation Criteria or Extended Widening Participation Criteria. 

The Turing Scheme offers two main grants:

• The Cost of Living grant
• Travel Funding

The Contribution to Living Costs is calculated based on where you are going. Countries are split into two groups depending on the general cost of living in that area. Group 1 is for a higher cost of living and group 2 is for a lower cost of living. Check the list of destinations and grant rates here. 

The rate you will receive depends on the group your destination country is in, the length of your placement and whether you meet the Widening Participation criteria or Extended Widening Participation criteria. Students receive the amount indicated for each day of the placement (including days 1-14).

Contribution to Living Costs - Widening Participation Rates

Contribution to Living Costs - Extended Widening Participation Rates

Students who meet the Widening Participation Criteria will also receive a contribution towards travel costs, for one return journey to the placement destination. You will receive a set amount based on your destination - check the list of destinations and travel funding rates. 

To claim the travel grant, you must submit proof of your actual expenses. You will upload the required documents to a questionnaire called Turing Travel Grant - Evidence of Travel in Terra Dotta (our admissions system). The Global Opportunities Team will review the evidence and either approve your submission or request further information. The following documents will be accepted as evidence of travel:

• a booking email with a ticket attached
• an invoice or receipt for booking
• a booking email and proof of payment from your bank

The travel grant is usually paid in two instalments, the first to contribute to your outbound travel and the second to contribute to your travel home. The second payment will only be made once we have received your Certificate of Attendance.

Once we have all placements confirmed, we will assess your eligibility for Turing funding automatically. You do not need to apply. 

We will email all students (usually around March) to notify them of eligibility. We know situations can change, and will continue to assess and monitor eligibility prior to placements starting. 

Submitting essential information

If you’re eligible for funding, you’ll need to provide the following details in Terra Dotta:

• planned placement dates
• UK bank account details
• placement information (length, placement provider, etc.)

The deadline to provide these documents is:

• 31 August if you are abroad for Semester 1 or a full academic year
• 30 November if you are abroad for Semester 2 only

We are unable to calculate your grant without these details.

Receiving your grant agreement

A Grant Agreement is a contract between you the funding provider that outlines your obligations and your provisional grant entitlement.

Once we have received the information above, we will issue your Grant Agreement. The amount in your Grant Agreement is calculated based on your planned placement dates.

We will send the Grant Agreement to your Newcastle University email address. This needs to be signed and uploaded to Terra Dotta.

Please note, students participating in work placements/traineeships will also have to provide a fully signed Learning Agreement (Before Mobility) before we can issue their grant agreement.

Once you have digitally signed the Grant Agreement, we will issue your first payment instalment (70% of your total grant). You will receive a payment notification email to your Newcastle University email address. It could take up to 15 working days from the payment notification for the grant to reach your bank account.

You must submit a completed Learning Agreement (Before Mobility) document within two weeks of the start of your placement.

This must be signed by Newcastle University, your host institution/placement provider and yourself. You can download a template of this agreement from Terra Dotta.

After completing your placement, you must upload a Certificate of Attendance to Terra Dotta. The deadline to submit your Certificate of Attendance is 15 August. You can find a template of this certificate in Terra Dotta.

The Certificate of Attendance verifies your actual placement dates.

Once your Certificate of Attendance has been approved by our team, we recalculate your grant entitlement based on your actual placement dates.

Grants are only payable for the actual dates of your placement. Placements can sometimes be longer or shorter than planned, so your overall grant entitlement may be different from what was included in your grant agreement.

• if your duration is shorter, your grant entitlement will also be reduced, and you may: (a) not receive a further payment, or (b) be asked to make a partial repayment to us
• if your duration is longer, you will only receive the remaining 30% of your expected grant entitlement, unless we have previously approved an extension request

If you are entitled to a final payment, we will issue it along with a payment notification. It could take up to 15 days from receiving the payment notification for the funds to enter your bank account. If your placement was less than originally planned, we may need to reclaim some of your grant.

If you fail to submit any of the required documentation, we will cancel your grant and issue a full reclaim for any payments that you have already received from us.