The Turing Scheme offers life-changing experiences to pupils, learners, and students. These are accessed through their educational provider. The scheme encourages increased exposure to the world beyond national borders by experiencing new cultures and improving their engagement and confidence.
The first step towards gaining this experience is applying. But how should you go about putting together a compelling application?
Getting Your Turing Scheme application together and getting marked
The key to success is understanding what happens during the application process, and then making your application meet the criteria of the scheme.
The mechanics are easy. The application process is a straightforward online system that will store your answers as you build your proposal. With the application process taken care of, writing your application to maximise the chances of it being accepted becomes paramount.
The questions are focused on ensuring your project meets the key aims of the scheme. These themes are:
- International engagement (Global Britain) – There are 2 questions in this section worth 20% of your project score.
- Levelling up – There are 2 questions in this section. These are worth 30% of your project score.
- Positive impact and value for money – There are 5 questions worth a further 30% of your project score.
Programme design and monitoring: The application will also ask two questions (worth the remaining 20% of your total score) based around the design and implementation of your project. This section will also give you an opportunity to explain any quality monitoring and assurance measures you put in place.
Any of the questions that require a narrative answer have a 500-word limit. You are encouraged to cross link or refer to previous answers if you feel information already given elsewhere is relevant.
Turing Scheme applications will be assessed by independent assessors, managed by the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU). All applications are double-marked; discrepancies are addressed by senior assessors and a proportion of applications are additionally quality checked.
Top tips for a successful application
- Read the programme guide: Download the programme and application guides and read them thoroughly. These guides provide all the information you need to check your eligibility for funding and find out the full details on how to apply. Make sure to make good use of this and all of the other application support resources available from the Turing Scheme website. If in any doubt, contact our Service Centre for help or advice.
- Know your priorities: Use the time between now and the application opening date to plan your application and identify your mobility groups. Make sure you know where you are going, what you want to do when there, and how this will benefit your pupils, learners or students. When writing your application responses, consider how the priorities you wish to address can be made to fit with the qualitative criteria outlined in the Programme Guide.
- Plan ahead: Don’t leave the writing of your application until the last minute. Set aside time to collaborate with colleagues and host partner organisations to create a realistic plan that will deliver your project objectives.
- Structure your thinking: Writing a subheading to introduce different sections within each of your answers will help assessors follow your narrative. It will also prevent you from repeating yourself or otherwise wasting those 500 words.
- Work smartly: If there is information you would like to provide that you think is relevant to more than one application section, cross reference it instead of copying and pasting the same text multiple times.
- Don’t submit until you are ready: The Turing Scheme will only take one submission per project, so don’t submit your application until you are sure that you have provided all of the information you need to make your case.
- Submit on time: We will not be accepting applications beyond the closing date. Ensure that all applications are complete and submitted to us by the closing date.
For more help with your project, a number of videos are available. Visit the Turing Scheme YouTube channel to view the range of support videos that are available
