Tax Planning When Your Child Starts University in the UK

UK Study Options is proud to partner with Spice Taxation Ltd to make UK taxation services available to our clients. We have asked Martin Rimmer, Managing Director of Spice Taxation, to write a series of articles on the UK tax implications of various scenarios.


In this first article, Martin explores some of the main tax planning issues and opportunities arising when parents, who remain expatriates, send their child to university in the UK. 

Scenario 1 : Child only relocating to the UK 

The Case Study 

Paul and Lisa Manning are British and they live and work in Dubai with their two children, Amy and Alice. Amy (18) is shortly to begin a four year Undergraduate Degree in Neuroscience at Exeter University. Paul and Lisa have been abroad for over 10 years, are non-resident for UK tax purposes and have immediate no plans to relocate to the UK. They own a rented property in the UK which used to be their main home and they hold a portfolio of investments and pensions outside of the UK. Amy is looking forward to her first taste of independence and will be moving to the UK alone, living in halls for the first year. 

The Impact on Paul and Lisa 

From Paul and Lisa’s perspective, nothing changes. They continue to ‘test positive’ for non-resident status under the Statutory Residence Test – remaining liable to UK tax only on: 

  • Incomes arising from the UK (rental income, interest from bank deposits, dividends from UK companies and unit trusts etc 
  • Gains from the sale or gift of interests in UK land and property 
  • Professional earnings relating to duties performed in the UK which are not ‘merely incidental’ to those performed abroad 

Paul and Lisa file tax returns to report their UK incomes and their movements to and from the UK. They also pay Class 2 Voluntary National Insurance Contributions. 

When Amy moves to the UK nothing about Paul and Lisa’s tax position changes. They may spend a little extra time in the UK but, as Amy is aged 18, her becoming resident in the UK shouldn’t affect Paul and Lisa’s position at all, provided that they remain non-resident themselves. 

That said, Paul and Lisa probably need UK tax planning advice more generally in respect of their UK assets, the many planning opportunities for tax planning which exist for them whilst non-resident and ahead of an eventual relocation to the UK and in the area of Inheritance Tax in the UK, to which their global estate remains exposed even whilst living in Dubai. 

Amy’s Tax Position

However, Amy does become resident because of the amount of time she spends in the UK and because she has a home in the UK (the halls she will live in). The fact that her parents pay her costs in the UK does not create any kind of tax charge or reporting obligation on any of Paul, Lisa or Amy. The fact that the funding comes into the UK from Dubai does not create a charge to tax either in this case. 

Tax and Succession Planning Opportunities for Amy 

Paul and Lisa are keen for Amy to begin to acquire some investment and financial management skills. As a resident of the UK, Amy is entitled to invest up to GBP 20,000 per year into an Individual Savings Account – a type of investment account that generates income and gains which are completely exempt from Income and Capital Gains Tax. Amy can also contribute to a UK pension whilst she is resident, even whilst being a student. Although Amy can’t access the pension until she is 57 years old, Paul and Lisa want to encourage Amy to see the value of saving for retirement.

So, in addition to investing in an ISA for their daughter, they contribute GBP 2,880 per year (the maximum) to a pension scheme for Amy. HM Revenue & Customs adds GBP 720 (25%) to this on a tax-free basis, bringing the total investment to GBP 3,600. Paul and Lisa work with Amy to choose the investments for her pension and ISA. Amy is responsible for meeting with a financial adviser from time to time to monitor performance and generally get familiar with investing. 

In year 2, Amy has to move out of halls. Recognising that this presents a good opportunity to start to pass some of their own wealth on to Amy as well as to instil some further financial management values, all three agree that Paul and Lisa will put down the deposit on a 2 bedroom property in Exeter, and that Paul and Lisa will also act as guarantor on an interest-only mortgage.

After some thought, they decide to purchase the property in Amy’s sole name but the deposit is rendered as a non interest-bearing loan repayable by Amy, with Paul and Lisa retaining a charge over the property for this amount. The reason for this is that a highly-indebted asset is less likely to be subject to a relationship squabble later between Amy and a future partner, especially where Mum and Dad (as well as the bank) have a legal charge against it. 

Amy agrees to take responsibility for renting out the second bedroom, contracting with the tenant (a fellow student), collecting the rent, insuring the place, paying the bills and the mortgage and for providing a monthly account to Paul and Lisa on the financials. Paul and Lisa agree that they will match any profit, which will then be diverted into Amy’s ISA and pension. Paul and Lisa continue to cover Amy’s tuition fees and living costs. 

Amy can receive up to GBP 7,500 of rental income from the letting of the second bedroom in her main home completely free of tax, in addition to her Income Tax allowance of GBP 12,570. Although no Income Tax is due, a calculation of the profit from the rental is still worth doing each year. The property is her ‘Principal Private Residence’ for Capital Gains Tax purposes, which provides valuable tax relief if she decides to sell the property later. Amy also makes a will, dividing her possessions evenly between her parents and younger sister. This is because she is a responsible adult with assets and financial responsibilities.

 

Martin Rimmer is head of Spice Taxation, an independent Singapore-based UK tax consultancy which focuses upon the needs of British Expatriates around the world and those who move to the UK or have financial interests in the UK. Spice Taxation offers a free exploratory consultation to all clients of UK Study Options, for which we are very grateful. In addition, Spice Taxation has generously granted a discount of 20% on Tax Advisory services to clients and contacts of UK Study Options.

If you wish to avail yourself of this, please quote discount code UKSO23.

Visit: www.spicetaxation.com or contact Martin directly at martin@spicetaxation.com for more information. 

Will I get Home fee status after Brexit? The rules explained for expats in Europe.

Brexit seems a long time ago but its effects will still impact the way universities assess tuition fee status for a number of years to come and this will affect British and Irish expats living in Europe.

The rules for British and Irish expats living in Europe are complicated. The current rules in place are also only temporary and are different in each UK nation so their impact on expats is about to get even more confusing. As an expat, whether you are eligible for Home fees at a UK university is highly dependent on your personal circumstances such as where you have been living, for how long and for what purpose, and where in the UK to are applying to university, among many others things. It is crucial that you get personal advice on your circumstances if your family is living in Europe or you are advising such students applying to UK universities.

Brexit Withdrawal Agreement

Under the fee status rules, British and Irish expats living in Europe currently have protection under the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. In England this is in the form of a category of Home fee status called ‘Brexit temporary offer for courses starting before 2028: UK nationals and family with residence in Europe or overseas territories’. Expats are eligible if they were living (‘ordinary resident’) in the EEA or Switzerland on 31st December 2020 and have maintained their ordinary residence there or in the UK since then. As the name suggests, this is a temporary category that will end after 2027, at which point expats will no longer have this protection and will need advice on whether they are still able to be Home fee-payers.

Crucially, if you have moved to the EEA or Switzerland from 2021 onwards, you are not eligible for Home fee status under this category. This is because you’ve moved to Europe post-Brexit and are not covered by the Withdrawal Agreement.

The rules are even more complex when applying to universities in Scotland as it is necessary to show your ordinary residence in Scotland for the three years immediately prior to living in Europe (as well as the requirements above) to get Scottish Home fees (£1,820 per year). Confusingly, Scotland have another rate of fees called RUK (Rest of UK) which is at a level equivalent to Home fees in England (£9,535). It is separately possible for British citizens resident in Europe to qualify for RUK fees in Scotland without living in the UK before moving to Europe.

What to expect

If you do live in Europe or anywhere else outside of the UK you can expect universities to question your eligibility for Home fees when you apply. They will ask for information and supporting evidence by sending you a fee status questionnaire (FSQ) to understand your circumstances and see if your meet the requirements for Home fees. You must gather and maintain relevant evidence of where you live and the date of your move, as you may be required to provide this information. You may need to show different evidence depending on which UK nation your university choices are located.

Make sure you understand the rules and check your eligibility for Home fees as early as you can before the university application. If you will be starting your university course after 2027 or you moved to Europe in 2021 or later your case will be much more complex and it may be harder for you to get Home status. UKSO are the leading experts in UK University Fee Status. We have been advising schools, families and students around the world on this complex topic for 11 years and have helped over 1,000 expat families with their fee status queries.

Fee Status Checker Tool: To make the process of determining eligibility even easier, we’ve introduced our new Fee Status Checker. This online tool allows families to quickly assess whether their child could be eligible for Home fees, providing instant results and relevant resources for further research. By simplifying this crucial first step, we ensure that families can move forward confidently with the university application process. Visit our Fee Status Checker to get started.

Money in pot used to grow plant

The Cost of an Undergraduate Degree in the UK

A guest blog article from our partner TorFX who specialise in currency transfer

As one of the most popular study destinations in the world, thousands of students move to the UK each year to start their undergraduate degrees.

Image showing that torfx offers 24/7 Currency Transfers

The UK is home to over 160 higher education institutions, including some of the most prestigious, competitive and well-known universities in the world. It offers great choice to both British and international students alike.

The benefits of UK higher education are numerous; unrivalled student experience, globally-recognised education, excellent career prospects, and more but studying in the UK can be costly and families need to plan and budget effectively.

There are three main areas of costs that families need to consider when planning for university in the UK; tuition fees, accommodation and living expenses.

Tuition Fees

UK bachelors degrees are usually 3 years in duration for most subjects although some degrees may be longer such as Engineering, Architecture, Veterinary Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Scottish bachelors are typically 4 years. Before starting to budget for the cost of tuition fees, you need to check the duration of the course you are interested in.

Tuition fees in the UK vary depending on whether you’re a home or an international student.

Home students pay tuition fees of between £1,820 and £9,250 a year, depending on which UK country you study in. Most students can apply for a government-provided tuition fee loan that covers the cost of this and is paid directly to your university.

International students

For international students, undergraduate degrees begin at around £10,000 per year and can go as high as £61,000 per year, depending on the course you’re applying to. Tuition fees also vary depending on the university you’re considering – more competitive institutions tend to charge higher fees. Some universities also charge international students additional college fees of around £10,000 per year. It’s best to check the fees for any course you’re thinking of applying to for the year that you are applying, as fees tend to go up each year by around 5-10%.

International students aren’t eligible for the tuition fee loan. You may be able to secure a scholarship, grant or bursary, although these can be highly competitive. It’s worth contacting the universities you’re interest in to see if they offer any funding.

Image of money used to grow a plant

Accommodation and Living Expenses

According to Unipol, rented student accommodation was about £166 per week on average in 2021-22. While private accommodation cost £155 per week for an en-suite room in a house-share and £228 for a studio flat.

Of course, this varies hugely across the country. Rural and northern towns tend to be cheaper, while cities and popular tourist destinations are far pricier. In London, costs were significantly higher. University accommodation averaged at £212 per week and private rooms averaged at £259.

Living expenses, meanwhile, sit around £389 per month. This includes everything from groceries and gift-giving to health expenses and household bills. Students with family abroad will likely have higher travel costs too, so that’s something to factor in.

Overall, students can pay between £600 and £1,100 a month on accommodation and living expenses. Online student calculators are a great tool for adding up the cost of living and comparing costs in different parts of the country.

Loans

Once again, home students are eligible for a government maintenance loan to go towards their cost of living. The amount is based on your household income. In 2022-23 ranges from £3,597 to a maximum of £12,667 (for someone studying away from home in London) per year.

Maintenance loans rarely cover the total cost of living. Instead, students will likely need financial support or to work while they study.

As with the tuition loan, international students are not eligible for government maintenance loans. Instead, they’ll need to secure their own funding or apply for a scholarship.

How TorFX Can Help

While TorFX can’t shrink the price that universities charge for a degree, we can minimise extra costs associated with currency exchange.

If you’re transferring an international currency into Pounds to pay for tuition, accommodation and living costs, you are likely to be charged for the transaction. You are also vulnerable to fluctuating exchange rates, as US banks, for example, request that your payment be made before providing you with a rate.

Currency exchange providers, on the other hand, specialise in conducting international money transfers – and can often offer a more competitive exchange rate. At TorFX, an account manager will explain the current rates available and can offer a variety of tailored products to help get the most from your transfer.

Tools TorFX can offer

Tools we offer include spot contracts, forward contracts and market orders. Respectively, these allow you to transfer money immediately at the current exchange rate, fix a favourable exchange rate up to two years ahead of a transfer, or target the rate you’d like to achieve so that if and when that rate is achieved, the transfer will take place.

We also offer stop loss orders, where you can set your minimum exchange rate. Ifif the market moves to this level, your transaction will go ahead, protecting you from further losses.

Whatever the cost of a UK university education amounts to, don’t be tricked into paying more than you need to. Contact TorFX today by filling out our form for an online quote.

At UK Study Options, we offer bespoke university guidance, find out more here.

UK University Fee Status Rules

If you are going to a UK university, your fee status, i.e. whether you are charged home fees or overseas fees, is determined by a set of rules.

The rules are set by the government, but summaries of the rules are published online by a charity called UKCISA who support students in understanding their fee status eligibility. Anyone can access and read these summaries of the rules online.

These rules differ in each of the four UK nations. The rules that apply to you are based on where the university you are applying to is located. For example, if you are applying to Scottish universities, you need to understand the Scottish fee status rules. If you are applying to English universities, you need to understand the English fee status rules and so on. If you are applying to universities in different parts of the UK you must apply all the relevant rules.

Here’s where to find them:

English fee status rules

Scottish fee status rules

Welsh fee status rules

Northern Irish fee status rules

The rules are largely derived from case law of previous immigration or student finance court cases. This is often where certain terms and definitions within the rules are defined so you may also want to read this information also.

Ordinary Residence Case Law

We understand that these rules can be confusing and it’s not always clear how your fee status would be determined.

UKCISA, who train us at UKSO and university staff on how to apply the fee status rules, offer free advice to students on their fee status and can be contacted here.

UKSO are the leading independent experts in UK University Fee Status. We have been advising schools, families and students around the world on this complex topic for 10 years and have helped over 1,000 expat families with their fee status queries.

Fee Status Checker Tool: To make the process of determining eligibility even easier, we’ve introduced our new Fee Status Checker. This online tool allows families to quickly assess whether their child could be eligible for Home fees, providing instant results and relevant resources for further research. By simplifying this crucial first step, we ensure that families can move forward confidently with the university application process. Visit our Fee Status Checker to get started.

PLEASE NOTE: The guidance on fee status rules is regularly updated and the link to the latest guidance may change. The above links are the latest guidance at the time of writing, March 2025.

Fee Status For Medical Degrees

Expat students that live abroad in any of the three years prior to starting their medical degree are in danger of losing their eligibility for home fees at UK universities. Each university will undertake due diligence when assessing whether a student has maintained their eligibility for home fees but if the course is a medical degree there is further scrutiny.

This is partly because the degree is so expensive to deliver and partly because home and overseas places for medical students are capped by the UK Government. Institutions that offer home fee places to students incorrectly are at risk of being fined by the UK Government so fee status for medical degrees is of added importance.

Cost of medical degree for home students v overseas students

UK home fees for medicine vary from £1,820 per year at Scottish universities (Scottish nationals), £4.630 at Northern Irish universities (NI and ROI nationals) to £9,535 for Welsh and English universities. Universities fix these lower tuition fees for home students as their places are subsidised by the Government.

The true cost of delivering such intensive medical training is much higher; overseas medical students pay anything between £32,000 per annum to up to £70,000 per year (depending upon the UK country, the institution and whether it is for preclinical or clinical years) for 5 to 6 years. There may also be additional costs for overseas students, such as College fees at Cambridge university.

The disparity in cost to students means that if you are borderline for home fees, such as expat students, there is a real importance to maintain your home fee eligibility to avoid paying a much higher rate.

Overseas students will not be able to apply for a student loan as home students can, so there is the added burden of funding the higher tuition fees and living expenses yourself.

Competition for places is tough

Medicine is a notoriously competitive course to apply for in the UK. It’s not just a question of being academically able, there is strong emphasis on having the right aptitude for medicine, the skill-set, attributes, ethical qualities and to be able demonstrate their suitability for such intense training and demanding career.

To add to the competitiveness of the course, the UK Government has capped the number of medical students it is prepared to fund each year. There are 29,000 applications each year for around 9,000 places. Only around 7% of the total places are allocated to overseas fee-paying students. Needless to say, the competition for places is extremely high as a home student but even more so as an overseas student.

Additionally, some medical schools do not accept any overseas students, so if you apply to these schools and are assessed as an overseas fee-payer, you will be rejected for this reason and not because you don’t meet the entry requirements.

When applying for medical school with the intention of applying as a home fee student, it is important that you are prepared in advance; you will need to actively maintain your eligibility for home fees and gather strong evidence to support your case. Once the application goes in, the universities will send the expat student a fee status questionnaire so that they can gather the information they need, along with the evidence required, to assess the student’s eligibility. A delay in submitting information and evidence is likely to delay the offer for months at a critical time in the application cycle.

Each year we help hundreds of expat families achieve their dream of attending a UK university on home fees. We are education consultants specialising in university education. Our consultants have each been at the heart of university admissions in top tier universities – see our team and experience.

How has Covid-19 affected fees status?

Since Covid-19 hit, there has been one full UK university admission cycle. Throughout this, we have been supporting families around the world with their fee status queries and observing how Coronavirus has impacted the decisions universities make on who gets Home fees.

Maintaining ‘Ordinary Residence’ is a key criterion for achieving Home fee status for many British expats. One part of demonstrating that you maintain this status is through regular travel back to the UK (or EEA in some cases) during periods where you reside elsewhere. When subject to a fee status assessment by the universities that they are applying to, students are often asked about their travel pattern back to the UK over a number of years as a qualifying characteristic of Ordinary Residence. As Covid-19 grounded flights in early 2020, British expats who live abroad would have seen this important travel pattern interrupted, and thus threaten to jeopardise the Ordinary Residence status that they rely on to remain eligible for Home fees.

There has been no formal national guidance on how universities should take this into consideration when assessing a student’s fees. Instead, each university has been left to use their discretion on individual fee status cases. Overall, we have seen most universities being flexible regarding the travel element of students’ fee status cases, i.e., the lack of travel has not automatically disqualified a student from obtaining Home fees. Most institutions have been empathetic to the fact that families have not been able to get back to their home country. However, despite this flexibility, we have seen universities across the country becoming increasingly strict on fee status in the last year, resulting in many more British expat students being classified as Overseas fee-payers than in previous years. This is likely to be a result of the Pandemic and also Brexit falling within the same year; two big financial blows to the university sector leading to more hard-line policy on who gets Home fees.

We are now in a new academic year, where students who wish to start university in 2022, will also have been prevented from travelling back to the UK in recent years. We are keeping a close eye on fee status assessments and if the same concessions will be made in the current admissions cycle. But as each university uses their discretion and makes decisions on a case-by-case basis, there is no guarantee that this flexibility will continue. Covid-19 is likely to impact fee status for many years to come, so is there anything you can do to minimise the impact on your own fee status case?

Here are a few tips that have helped our expat families impacted by travel restrictions:

  • As always you should keep records of all your travel to the UK, dating as far back as you can.
  • If you booked any travel during the Pandemic which was cancelled or postponed, keep records of this also to show that you intended and attempted to go back but were prevented from doing so by things outside your control.
  • Don’t expect UK Admissions teams to know what travel restrictions there are around the world, as they differ in each country. Keep a copy of the current travel guidance where you live in case you need to show the university that you were subject to travel restrictions. Screenshots of a news articles or national Coronavirus updates can be helpful.
  • Itemise your travel pattern pre-pandemic, to show that prior to travel restrictions you regularly travelled back to the UK. Volunteer this information to the university when you are being fee status assessed.
  • Consider travelling back to the UK as soon as you’re able again to show commitment to maintaining your Ordinary Residence.

UK Study Options are experts on UK university fee status and we support families all over the world with their personal fee status cases. Find out if you’re eligible for Home fees by completing our online form.

Home Fees for Medical Degrees

Read more

Fee Status Advice for International Schools

If you have British expat students at your international school who are looking to study at university in the UK, they may be classified as Overseas fee-payers, costing up to £400,000 more for their degree than if they were classified as Home fee-payers.

Providing advice on fee status to your students and parents is easy and can avoid them being classified incorrectly, as well as have other benefits to your school.

How does good advice on UK University fee status benefit your school?

  1. Improve your destination statistics.

If well-advised on fee status, students are more likely to get Home offers from all their university choices, including top institutions. Giving them the freedom to choose the best university and course for them – rather than their choice be dictated by where they managed to get Home fees.

  1. Improve your student retention.

Having clarity on the rules and regulations around fee status will help your parents make more informed choices about their child’s education. You can then retain students who would otherwise return to the UK before sixth form, thinking that this will secure them Home fees when it in fact may not.

  1. Increase confidence and reduce stress at application time.

Having a strong case for Home fees gives students and parents peace of mind during the application period and reduces the stress of having to appeal a fee status decision (which can take months). Clarity on a student’s fee status will speed up offers from the universities, allowing your students to just focus on which offer to choose.

How can you support your students and parents with their fee status queries?

  1. Get them thinking about it early!

Don’t wait until sixth form to encourage your students and parents to think about fee status. We recommend that Years 9 or 10 upwards have access to this information so they can make informed decisions about their living/work/study/travel plans well ahead of their application to university.

  1. Book a webinar with us.

We offer free webinars for schools on fee status that you can invite your students and parents to so they can be well-informed on fee status. Contact us to book a webinar.

  1. Share our blog.

We have loads of free advice on fee status that helps families navigate this complex topic on our Blog.

UK Study Options are leading experts on UK University Fee Status and we have helped over 1,000 families with their fee status queries. We are a team of ex Russell Group Admissions Officers who have many years’ experience of fee status assessment and we are trained by UKCISA on how to assess fee status.

UK University Fee Status – A Guide for Expats (Part 2)

Baffled by UK university fee status and not sure how it applies to you? Get to grips with the basics with our two-part blog on fee status.

This blog post answers the question:

  • Who is eligible for Home fees?

See our blog UK University Fee Status – A Guide for Expats (Part 1), to answer the questions:

  • What is a fee status assessment?
  • What are the different fee statuses?
  • What are the tuition fee and funding options for the different fee statuses?

Who is eligible for Home fees?

Being a British citizen or holding a British passport is not enough to qualify you for Home fee status. Nor does owning property in the UK or having lived there previously. If you have left the UK and now live abroad or have recently returned to the UK after a period away, you may have lost your eligibility. Too many people take it for granted that when they return to the UK, they will automatically get Home fees but the reality is, it’s very easy to lose your Home status. Therefore, you have to pay much higher Overseas tuition fees for your UK university degree.

If you want to fully understand the rules and regulations around fee status, then we recommend that you visit UKCISA. UKCISA publish them in full detail. They are quite dense and complicated, so here we give you a brief overview.

Firstly, to be eligible for Home fees, you must meet the necessary immigration criteria by having ONE of the following statuses (this is a bare minimum of what is required):

  • A British citizen,
  • Indefinite Leave to Enter/Remain in the UK,
  • A Certificate of Entitlement to the Right of Abode in the UK,
  • Right of permanent Residence in the UK,
  • Settled or Pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme
  • Republic of Ireland citizen.

Ordinary Residence

Secondly, you need to demonstrate that you have been ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK for at least three years prior to starting university. This means having a “regular and habitual mode of life in a particular place, the continuity of which has persisted despite temporary absence” (UKCISA). For example, maintaining strong connections that demonstrate that the UK country is your permanent home country even if you don’t currently live there. This can be demonstrated through a number of ways including, having a UK home and regularly visiting the UK, among others.

Thirdly, if it’s not clear whether someone has ordinary residence in the UK, then universities will look to see that any absence from the UK is of a temporary nature and that it is your (or your family’s) intention to return to the UK at some point. For this, universities will look at the parents’ current and previous employment, property ownership, rental agreements etc. There is no concrete rule about how long ‘temporary’ is. Universities will take a different stance on this some will have a strict cut off period and others will be flexible based on the student’s circumstances.

Generally, if a student fulfils the criteria for ordinary residence and temporary absence and is able to provide solid evidence for this. Then they will be perceived as Home. Although there are always anomalies due to the interpretable nature of fee status assessment. Completing university applications and forms correctly and presenting the right evidence is vital for a successful outcome. Whether you have Home fee eligibility is dependent on your specific background and living and working circumstances. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that if your friend got home status, so will you. Every family’s circumstances are unique and fee status assessments are made on individual, case-by-case bases.

UKSO are the leading experts in UK University Fee Status. We have been advising schools, families and students around the world on this complex topic for 10 years and have helped over 1,000 expat families with their fee status queries.

Fee Status Checker Tool: To make the process of determining eligibility even easier, we’ve introduced our new Fee Status Checker. This online tool allows families to quickly assess whether their child could be eligible for Home fees, providing instant results and relevant resources for further research. By simplifying this crucial first step, we ensure that families can move forward confidently with the university application process. Visit our Fee Status Checker to get started.

 

UK University Fee Status – A Guide for Expats (Part 1)

Baffled by UK university fee status and not sure how it applies to you? Get to grips with the basics with our two-part blog on fee status.

This blog post answers the questions:

  • What is a fee status assessment?
  • What are the different fee statuses?
  • What are the tuition fee and funding options for the different fee statuses?

See our blog UK University Fee Status – A Guide for Expats (Part 2), to answer the question:

  • Who is eligible for Home fees?

What is a fee status assessment?

The fee status assessment is part of the Admissions process of all UK universities which aims to establish what fees a student should pay based on where the student is from. They need to make this distinction because they receive funding (tax-payer money) for Home students but not for Overseas students and therefore, Overseas students will pay more for their degree than Home students. The process of assessing a student’s fee status is to determine if they are eligible for that funding or not.

In order to do this, universities apply a set of rules and regulations published by UKCISA to a range of different student backgrounds and circumstances. UKCISA do not write the rules, they simply publish them to help universities understand the relevant government legislation which can be quite complicated.

For the most part, this assessment is quite straight forward but for some ‘borderline’ students it may be harder to assign a fee status. Such students might be British citizens living overseas (expats), refugees, asylum seekers or leave to remainers, for example. Here universities use their discretion and interpretation of the rules to determine fee status.

In these instances, universities may automatically assign an Overseas status and leave it to the student to contest it or they may require students to submit further information to assist with the assessment of their fee status. Because each university is using their discretion in these instances (and therefore, applying a slightly different policy), it’s often the case that a student will receive some Home offers and some Overseas.

What are the different fee statuses?

There are two factors that determine the different fee statuses; firstly, where in the UK (i.e. which UK country) is the university that the student is applying to. Secondly, where is the student themselves from.

Fee statuses differ depending on whether the university is in England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Universities in England and Wales have two fee statuses; Home (which applies to students from all UK countries and the Common Travel Area) and Overseas.

In Scotland, Universities have three fee statuses; Home (which applies to Scottish students), Rest of UK (which applies to students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and Overseas.

In Northern Ireland, Universities also have three fee statuses: Home (which applies to Northern Irish students), GB (which applies to students from England, Scotland and Wales) and Overseas.

All UK countries follow the same government legislation but may differ slightly in their assessment criteria and processes.

What are the tuition fees and funding options for the different fee statuses?

Tuition fees differ depending on where in the UK the student is applying to university. For universities in England, Home fees are currently set at £9,535 per year for any course. In Wales, they are the same – £9,535 per year. Overseas fees range from £14,950 to £70,554 per year depending on the course and university. Generally speaking, the more competitive the course or university, the higher the Overseas fees.

For universities in Scotland, Home students currently pay £1,820 per year for any course.  These Home places are capped so they can be very difficult to obtain by people with borderline eligibility. RUK students pay £9,535 per year for any course. Overseas fees range from £14,600 to £49,900. Scottish undergraduate degrees are usually 4 years (at other UK universities they are typically 3 years depending on the course) – it’s important to factor this in when budgeting for university.

For universities in Northern Ireland, Home students pay £4,275 per year for any course. Students from England, Wales and Scotland pay £9,535 per year for any course. Overseas students can expect to pay between £16,000 and £38,000.

In any of the four countries, most students who are eligible for Home fees are also eligible for a student loan (and sometimes a grant) to cover or part-cover their tuition and maintenance costs. Depending upon where the student lives, applications for student loans have to be made via the relevant student loans company such as Student Finance England  http://www.sfengland.slc.co.uk,  Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) www.saas.gov.uk, Student Finance Wales www.studentfinancewales.co.uk or Student Finance Northern Ireland www.studentfinanceni.co.uk. Student loan companies will make their own fee assessment of each student who applies for a loan, they do not always concur with the fee status concluded by the university. It is not uncommon for a university to categorise a student as Home but the student loans company to categorise them as Overseas and therefore, reject their application for a loan.

Overseas students may have to pay additional fees, such as college fees at Oxford or Cambridge, that can be around £11,000 per year on top of tuition fees. Maintenance (or living) costs for all students are around £11,000+ per year of study.

Overseas students cannot apply for student loans to cover their tuition or maintenance costs, so their funding options are very limited. They also may be required to pay more of their tuition fees upfront and/or pay an interest fee if they wish to pay in instalments.

An additional factor to consider is that some courses, such as Medicine, cap the number of places available to Overseas students and therefore, the competition to get in is much higher. Some Medical degrees have as few as 4 places for Overseas students but will still receive hundreds of exceptional applications.

UKSO are the leading experts in UK University Fee Status. We have been advising schools, families and students around the world on this complex topic for 10 years and have helped over 1,000 expat families with their fee status queries.

Fee Status Checker Tool: To make the process of determining eligibility even easier, we’ve introduced our new Fee Status Checker. This online tool allows families to quickly assess whether their child could be eligible for Home fees, providing instant results and relevant resources for further research. By simplifying this crucial first step, we ensure that families can move forward confidently with the university application process. Visit our Fee Status Checker to get started.

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