UK ‘may live to regret’ loss of Turing exchange scheme

Plans to abandon the Turing exchange scheme when the UK rejoins Erasmus+ could result in all the learning from the programme “being lost”, academics fear.

While the post-Brexit scheme had a shaky start, experts said Turing’s focus on widening access and the chance to take part in shorter-term exchange trips unlocked opportunities for a much wider range of people than its European counterpart.

The UK has announced it will shutter Turing for the 2027-28 academic year, when the country will instead take part in the European Union’s flagship Erasmus+ programme after a six-year absence.

Erasmus+ only facilitates exchanges within Europe, and Sally Wheeler, vice-chancellor of Birkbeck, University of London, told Times Higher Education (THE) “the restricted range of countries” offered is “unfortunate”.

In contrast, Turing has included opportunities in approximately 150 countries around the world.

“The countries under Turing, they’re the sorts of places you’re unlikely to be able to go for a holiday,” Wheeler said. “The US, China, Canada, Japan...I don’t have anything against joining Erasmus. I do have an issue with leaving Turing.”

According to the government’s own funding outcomes data, the Turing scheme facilitated 18,826 higher educational placements in the 2025-26 year, worth approximately £42.3 million.

Of the university students supported to travel, 52 per cent were learners “from a disadvantaged background” and nearly 150 higher education institutions took part.

Rachel Brooks, a professor of higher education at the University of Oxford, said that despite initial scepticism about Turing as a post-Brexit replacement for Erasmus, it ended up in some ways improving upon its predecessor.

“When the Turing scheme was first introduced, it was criticised a lot – and there have still been problems with it, particularly lack of knowledge about how long it was going to stay around, and late notification of awards to students,” Brooks said.

“There have been some fairly well-justified criticisms of it…Equally, my feelings of doing research in the sector is that it did ultimately end up offering a lot that Erasmus didn’t.”

Turing’s emphasis on supporting students from a range of socio-economic backgrounds – described by then prime minister Boris Johnson as “levelling up in action” – differentiated it from its European counterpart, Brooks said.

By allowing students to embark on trips for even two or three weeks, versus a whole term or academic year, it “facilitated lots more short-term mobilities”, allowing universities to be “a lot more experimental in the kinds of study abroad that they offer”, she added.

For those who didn’t feel as confident going away, such trips could represent a “stepping stone” to longer periods spent abroad.

Brooks said, given the uncertainty over Erasmus participation beyond the year the UK has committed to, it would have been better to wait to make a decision on Turing’s future.

“I was quite surprised that [the government] didn’t wait until they’d made a final decision after this year of Erasmus. All that learning about how Turing works could potentially be lost.”

Beverley Orr-Ewing, an international higher education consultant, was less surprised by the announcement.

“It’s one of those things where, after the devastation of Brexit, it's lovely to see Erasmus coming back. I’m careful to avoid it sounding like a criticism of Erasmus because it’s not. But it’s clear we were never going to get both schemes – it was just a matter of time before the final death knell came on Turing.”

But not everyone is mourning Turing’s demise. Jan Bamford, professor of international higher education at London Metropolitan University, described the scheme as a “sticking plaster which largely came unstuck”.

“Turing never took off and it never could – the branding of Erasmus was so established,” Bamford said.

For post-92 institutions like her own, there was “limited buy-in”, she claimed, with Bamford also criticising the failure to offer staff exchanges.

“It did not allow for staff mobility initiatives across Europe which are arguably just as important as student mobility initiatives,” Bamford noted.

Asked by THE whether there was any chance of Turing returning after the 2027-28 year, a Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson did not comment on the future of the scheme.

In a statement, they said: “Erasmus+ will widen opportunities for young people from all backgrounds to study and train abroad, as well as unlocking opportunities for educational, youth and sport staff.

“The scheme offers a broader scope of activity than those that came before it – with tens of thousands more placements expected and opportunities in any EU member state and several countries outside the EU.

“Ensuring that young people can access the best opportunities in life regardless of their background is a key mission of this government, and one we continue to deliver on.”

georgia.luckhurst@timeshighereducation.com