The Turing scheme’s budget will remain unchanged at £78 million for its final year despite more ‘disadvantaged’ students becoming eligible for extra support. Refreshed guidance for 2026-27 reveals the government has raised the learner household income threshold by £10,000, meaning students from a household with an income of £35,000 or less can receive additional funding. Persistent under-spenders could also be penalised by the Department for Education. Named after the mathematician and code-breaker Alan Turing, the DfE-funded scheme replaced Erasmus+ in 2021 as a student placement programme prioritising disadvantaged students for work or study opportunities abroad. The UK rejoined the EU-funded Erasmus+ scheme in December after months of negotiations by ministers. The DfE can award education providers extra money to prepare students and apprentices from disadvantaged backgrounds for their “readiness to travel”, such as paying for passports, visa application fees, vaccines, medical certificates and travel insurance. Bids for providers to access Turing funding for 2026-27 closed in March. FE providers have consistently sent a high proportion of learners from disadvantaged backgrounds onto Turing placements. Two-thirds of the 11,352 placements arranged by FE providers this academic year were for disadvantaged students, compared with 52 per cent for university students and 82 per cent for school pupils. Since the scheme began, 60 per cent of all FE placements have gone to students from deprived backgrounds, compared with 52 per cent in schools and 50 per cent in universities. Underspends ‘considered’ Limits introduced last year on the maximum funding pot available per FE provider application remain at £205,000 (increasing to £600,000 for consortiums) and daily living cost allowances for students are unchanged. The 2026-27 guidance informed providers that allocations will consider whether they had persistently underspent their previously allocated funding. “This may be taken into account when the DfE ranks the applications and affect the likelihood of being awarded Turing scheme funding, or how much the applicant is awarded,” the DfE said. Any unused funds are recouped by the DfE and cannot be rolled over into the next academic year. Erasmus+ returns Colleges will have to seek funding through Erasmus+ for foreign study trips for the 2027-28 academic year. The UK will pump around £570 million into the programme. Though £78 million was committed to Turing last year, only £73.6 million was ultimately allocated to schools, FE colleges and universities. The scheme sent 35,249 learners from the UK on trips. Half of the 318 applications made by colleges and FE providers were successful, resulting in £24.1 million being allocated to the sector.