Mentions:
1: Dey, Graeme (SNP - Angus South) opportunities for young people, including those in Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, prioritises placements for disadvantaged - Speech Link
2: Dey, Graeme (SNP - Angus South) re-establish some of the opportunities that Erasmus provided that the United Kingdom’s replacement—the Turing - Speech Link
3: Gilruth, Jenny (SNP - Mid Fife and Glenrothes) That is why we launched the laptop scheme and made our commitment in relation to digital devices, and - Speech Link
4: Smyth, Colin (Lab - South Scotland) The STEM bursary scheme has clearly not succeeded in incentivising a career in computing teaching. - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Earl of Kinnoull (CB - Excepted Hereditary) The Government have made much of the Turing scheme, and we applauded it in its limited scope. - Speech Link
2: Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LDEM - Life peer) Its preference for the Turing scheme over Erasmus+ is specifically stated to be because Turing does not - Speech Link
3: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (CON - Life peer) and provide more opportunities for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. - Speech Link
Asked by: Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential financial impact of leaving the EU on students who wish to study abroad; and whether she plans to provide funding to support those students.
Answered by Robert Halfon
English-domiciled students attending an overseas institution as part of their UK course are charged a tuition fee of up to £1,350 for their overseas year of study, 15% of the full year fee rate, and they also qualify for fee loans to meet the full costs of their tuition. The department is freezing maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years to deliver better value for students and to keep the cost of higher education (HE) under control. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven years.
English-domiciled students attending an overseas institution as part of their UK course also qualify for partially means-tested loans for living costs paid at the overseas rate. We have increased maximum loans for living costs each year with a 2.8% increase for the current 2023/24 academic year.
The Government prioritises support for eligible English-domiciled students undertaking designated courses at UK HE institutions to ensure the student finance system remains sustainable.
The Turing Scheme, the UK Government’s global programme for students to study and work abroad, also exists to support students at UK institutions who wish to do so. This is on top of the student finance support that HE participants may already qualify for. A UK-wide scheme, funding is available at set rates to contribute to the living costs of participating students. All schools and further education participants will receive funding for travel costs, as well as HE students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Funding also covers visas, passports and related travel insurance for all participants from disadvantaged backgrounds as well as up to 100% of actual additional costs participants might incur as a result of being disabled and/or having a special educational need.
Turing Scheme funding for students across the UK is only available for students who are studying at registered UK education providers. The Scheme supports international mobilities of up to a year, and not the entire duration of a course of study or training undertaken overseas.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department's policy is on UK access to Erasmus+, in the context of the policies of the Irish Government on access to Erasmus+ in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department understands that the Irish Government has allocated funding to allow higher education students in Northern Ireland to access the Erasmus+ Programme.
The department looks forward to continuing its collaborative work with sector stakeholders and Northern Ireland Executive officials to ensure that students in Northern Ireland are able to benefit from the opportunities available to them through the UK Government’s Turing Scheme.
For academic year 2023/24, the Turing Scheme is allocating over £2.9 million to education providers in Northern Ireland to fund international placements for over 1,000 participants, more than half of whom are students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The government does not intend to negotiate resuming participation in any aspect of Erasmus+ with the EU as a Programme Country.
Mentions:
1: Wendy Chamberlain (LDEM - North East Fife) That is what the Turing scheme says it aims to provide—as did the Erasmus scheme, sadly lost as a result - Speech Link
2: Layla Moran (LDEM - Oxford West and Abingdon) They are what is sorely missing from the Turing scheme. - Speech Link
3: Robert Halfon (CON - Harlow) I have met people in my own constituency from disadvantaged backgrounds who have benefited from the Turing - Speech Link
4: Robert Halfon (CON - Harlow) to ensure that the Turing scheme is value for money. - Speech Link
5: Robert Halfon (CON - Harlow) who will benefit from the Turing scheme. - Speech Link
Aug. 17 2023
Source Page: I. National Cyber Strategy 2022. Annual progress report. 44p. II. Letter dated 10/08/2023 from Oliver Dowden MP to the Deposited Papers Clerk regarding a document for deposit in the House Libraries. 1p.Found: Since its launch at CyberUK in April 2023, the NCSC’s Cyber Advisor scheme has so far onboarded 44
Aug. 14 2023
Source Page: National Cyber Strategy 2022 Annual Progress Report 2022-2023Found: Since its launch at CyberUK in April 2023, the NCSC’s Cyber Advisor scheme has so far onboarded 44
Special Report Jul. 20 2023
Committee: Business and Trade Committee (Department: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)Found: increasingly libraries are lending portable devices, often targeted to those more likely to be digitally disadvantaged
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an equalities impact assessment of (a) the length of placements and (b) the timing of funding payments for the Turing Scheme.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Secretary of State for Education carried out an Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) into the Turing Scheme during the design stage of policy development as a way of facilitating and evidencing compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty contained in Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010. This requires public authorities to have due regard to several equality considerations when exercising their functions.
Under the Turing Scheme, eligible organisations in each education sector have flexibility to design projects in line with their needs and those of their students, including setting the duration of mobilities within a broad window above 4 weeks to 12 months in higher education (HE), 2 weeks to 12 months in further education, and 3 days to 6 months in schools. The department reduced the minimum duration of HE placements to 4 weeks, which is half the shortest duration previously permitted under the Erasmus+ Programme. This is intended to widen access to international opportunities to people from disadvantaged backgrounds for whom the duration of an international placements may represent a potential barrier to participation.
The Turing Scheme is creating more opportunities than ever before for students across the UK who were previously unlikely to take up international exchanges. Of the more than 40,000 pupils, learners and students who will have the opportunity to do study and work placements across the globe this year, nearly two thirds of these opportunities will be for participants from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Turing Scheme is a demand led, competitive programme with an annual application cycle. Successful applicant institutions are notified of their funding allocation before the start of the academic year and before the funding period for international placements commences. Once the grant agreement is in place, it is the responsibility of grant recipients to make timely requests for payments, so that they can disburse funding to their participants at the point of need.
The department will continue to work closely with the scheme’s delivery partner to collect and act on feedback from participating organisations and sector stakeholders, including on the payment mechanism and timing.
Jul. 18 2023
Source Page: Department for Education consolidated annual report and accounts 2022 to 2023Found: the EBacc than for non-disadvantaged pupils.