The Turing Scheme Eligibility and how to apply
The Turing Scheme provides funding for students to take part in life-changing experiences to study, work or volunteer abroad.
Read student blogs about how the Turing Scheme funding helped them enjoy their placements.
Activity areas
There are six international activity areas funded by the Turing Scheme in the 2025-26 academic year:
- Study placements abroad
- Work placements abroad
- Postgraduate research placements abroad
- Summer Schools and undergraduate research
- Medical electives
- Global Experiential Learning activities: The Turing Scheme will support short global opportunities, such as volunteering and leadership projects and internships. More information on funded opportunities will become available in January 2026.
For summer schools and experiential learning activities, placements must be undertaken with one of the agreed partner organisations. For more information on these partners, please contact the relevant activity lead.
Eligibility
To be eligible for Turing Scheme funding, you must meet the following criteria:
1) Be a registered University of Leeds student
If you have suspended your studies or taken a leave of absence, you will not be considered a registered student. Intercalating students studying at a different UK institution will not be considered registered students at Leeds.
2) Have applied for an overseas placement of 14 days or longer through the University
Your overseas placement must be approved by the University of Leeds and you must intend to complete your placement in person, in your host country.
To be eligible for this year’s scheme, your placement must be 14 days or longer and fall between 1 September 2025 and 31 August 2026. Any placement dates before 1 September 2025 will not be funded by the Turing Scheme.
3) Must not be receiving funding from another source that covers the full cost of your overseas placement
You will not be eligible for Turing funding if you are already in receipt of funding from another source that covers the full cost of your placement. If your other funding does not cover your placement costs, it will not interfere with your eligibility for Turing funding. Loans from Student Finance England and Wales do not impact eligibility for the Turing Scheme. Find out more about funding and grants.
4) Must have a completed a risk assessment to a satisfactory standard
The risk assessment you submit as part of your application must be complete before the start of your placement.
5) Must only receive one Turing Scheme grant per academic year
You can only receive one Turing Scheme grant in a single academic year. For example, if you received Turing funding for your 2025-26 Study Abroad placement, you will not be eligible for Turing funding for a Summer School in summer 2026.
Double funding
The Turing Scheme does not allow for double funding. This means that students will not be eligible for a Turing grant if they are in receipt of funding from another source that is covering the cost of their overseas placement. If the other source of funding does not cover the placement costs, students may be eligible for a Turing grant if they can evidence that their living and/ or travel costs are higher than the funding they have secured.
Students who are eligible for a Travel Grant from Student Finance England (SFE) should not request reimbursement for flights purchased using the Turing Travel grant. The Turing Travel grant can be used towards one return journey. If students make multiple trips between the UK and their host country for placement purposes, the SFE Travel Grant can be used towards additional flights not paid for by the Turing Scheme.
Students must declare if they are receiving funding from other sources on their Turing Scheme application form. Students who fail to disclose funding from another source may be required to repay their Turing Scheme grant in full. Similarly, if a student is found to be in receipt of funding that exceeds their placement costs, they may be required to repay their Turing Scheme grant in full.
The Turing Scheme and Student Finance England (SFE) Applications
Please answer ‘no’ to the question about receipt of Turing Scheme funding on your SFE application. This is because Turing Scheme funding cannot be guaranteed.
If you are a Study Abroad student, the answer to this question will not impact your SFE application.
If you are undertaking a work placement abroad and your Turing application is successful, our Funding team will inform SFE so that your maintenance loan can be amended.
How to apply
All students undertaking a study or work placement abroad in 2025-26 will be contacted by the Turing Scheme team by email and eligible students will be invited to complete an application form.
For the 2025-26 academic year, students undertaking a study abroad or work placement abroad will be invited to apply for Turing Scheme funding via email if they meet one or more of the criteria for Underrepresented Backgrounds (URB). The URB criteria is listed further down this page.
Students undertaking short programmes abroad (postgraduate research, summer schools and undergraduate research, medical electives and experiential learning activities) will be nominated for Turing Scheme funding by their Activity Leads. Nominated students will be invited to apply for Turing Scheme funding via email.
Step 1: Apply through your activity area
The activity leads from each of the activity areas will forward the placement details of eligible and selected participants to the Turing Scheme team.
If you are eligible, an application form will be emailed to your University of Leeds email account. It is your responsibility to submit the application form by the given deadline.
You will be able to declare your eligibility for the Underrepresented Backgrounds grant on the form (if applicable).
Please note that funding is limited. If there are more applicants than funding available, we will send you further information about the selection process.
If you don’t know the exact dates of your placement, please provide provisional dates and email the Turing Scheme team at TuringScheme@leeds.ac.uk if your dates change.
Step 2: Complete and submit your risk assessment
You will be advised by your activity lead about the risk assessment process you need to follow for your international placement. If you have any questions about this process, please contact your activity lead.
Please engage with the risk assessment process early as your activity lead may request that you make amendments before they can complete the risk assessment review. Your risk assessment review must be complete before the start of your placement to receive and retain your Turing Scheme grant.
Step 3: Accept the conditions of your Grant Agreement
If your Turing Scheme application is successful, you will receive a personalised Grant Agreement via email.
Please make sure that you read the details of this document carefully, specifically looking at your start and end of placement dates, before accepting the terms and conditions.
If your placement details change after you have submitted your terms and conditions form, email the Turing Scheme team at TuringScheme@leeds.ac.uk to let us know as soon as possible so that your record can be updated.
Step 4: Upload your bank details to Minerva
Please upload your bank details to Minerva as soon as you receive your Turing Scheme Grant Agreement so that your payments can be made on time.
Step 5: Upload your proof of arrival
Acceptable documentation includes boarding passes or a letter signed by your host institution to confirm your arrival. If submitting a letter, please use our template.
Your proof of arrival documentation must contain:
- your full name
- date of arrival or year of study/ work placement
- name of host country or institution.
Step 6: Upload your proof of travel costs (Underrepresented Backgrounds grant recipients only)
Upload your proof of travel costs.
You must upload evidence of your travel costs to receive your Turing Travel grant. Payments will be made on a reimbursement basis. You will be paid up to the value of your Travel grant allowance. Check your Travel grant allowance on the GOV.UK website.
Evidence must be for one return journey to the host country. This can include transfers from your home to the travel hub (e.g. airport) and onwards to your host destination, and back on your return. Transfers include trains, buses, taxis, and any other reasonable means of travel.
Your evidence of travel costs must contain the following details:
- Your full name. If your receipts do not show your name, you will need to upload a corresponding bank statement, highlighting the cost you wish to claim back from the Turing Scheme.
- Start and end destinations
- Dates of travel
- The costs you have incurred (how much you have spent). If you are evidencing costs in a foreign currency, you will need to upload a screenshot of the currency conversion to Pounds Sterling (GBP).
- The cost item (what you have spent money on).
I was always offered the highest levels of support from the Turing Scheme team and the criteria and details regarding the Turing Scheme were very clear. The application process was seamless.