Tag Archive for: home fees

UK University Fee Status – The Basics Part 1

You may never have come across the term ‘fee status’. But your university will give you one and it will make a difference to the tuition fees you pay. 

 

What is fee status? 

Your fee status determines the level of tuition fees you will pay when you go to a university in the UK that is publicly funded. There are two levels of fee status – a lower ‘home’ fee which is set at a capped amount by the government and ‘overseas’ which is often much higher and is not capped. Each university will follow regulations and guidance from the relevant UK government to determine each applicant’s fee status and charge tuition fees accordingly. 

How do I know my fee status?  

This is where it can get complicated. Each of the four UK nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) have a different set of fee status rules. Therefore, you will need to look at the rules that are relevant to the university you are applying for. If you apply to universities that are in different countries then, under each set of rules, it could be possible that you have a different fee status in say England as opposed to Scotland. You can find the rules for each country on the UKCISA website but the rules are complex and open to interpretation.

This means that for expatriate families, who are often to be considered to be on the borderline between home and overseas, each university may view their case differently. It is common that applicants could be classed as a home fee payer at one university but an overseas fee payer at another university, even in the same UK nation. This reflects the very subjective nature of the assessment that universities are required to undertake. It is however each university that has been given the autonomy to make the final decision on the fee status for those applicants on their courses. 

What are the requirements for home fees?  

It is important to understand that there are many different categories of home fee status and each have different eligibility criteria. A key step is to check the specific requirements that will be applicable to you and your application rather than rely on the experience of friends or family members. For British and Irish expatriate applicants you will generally have to demonstrate how you have an ‘ordinary residence’ in the UK or Ireland for the three-year period prior to starting university. Universities will ask for many details of your life including your home address in the UK, nationality and dual nationalities, travel pattern and parents employment. They will be looking to see that you have a regular and habitual life at your UK home or else otherwise that you have are only temporarily absent from the UK to take up employment abroad.

It is also possible to achieve home fees if you have a ‘relevant family member’ who is a British citizen even if you are not one yourself. If you have Indefinite Leave to Remain or another ‘settled’ status in the UK this could mean you get home fees if you can also meet the ordinary residence requirement. Additionally, temporary rules after Brexit mean that those who can show an ordinary residence in the EEA or Switzerland might also be eligible for home fees status. 

Where can I get help with my fee status case? 

UKCISA, the UK Council for International Student Affairs, provide guidance on how to understand the rules. This is a good place to start your research. We are experts in university fee status and provide personalised advice to expat families helping them to achieve home fee status. This service gives you comprehensive advice and support from the moment you engage our services until your child starts university. This includes support with any university fee status queries during the application cycle.

For a deeper understanding, check out UK University Fee Status: The Basics – Part 2

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 Myths and Assumptions

Common myths and assumptions made by expats. 

Myth: A British passport will get my son/daughter home fees at a UK university. 

Not quite. British citizenship is just one factor that make you eligible. Alone it is not enough to meet the full eligibility criteria, there are other criteria you need to meet additionally to this. Actually, you might not have a British passport but you might still be eligible for home fees. There is provision for people with other UK immigration statuses, such as Irish passports holders, EU passports holders with EUSS pre-settled or settled status, ‘Leave to Remain’ or ‘Permanent Right of Abode’, that may be eligible (providing they meet the full criteria). Essentially, your passport alone doesn’t tell you much about whether you are eligible for home fees so more understanding of the full criteria is needed.  

Myth: We’ll have to live in the UK for three years to get home fees. 

Not necessarily. If you do live in the UK three years before UK university (and you meet the rest of the criteria), then you will qualify for home fees. However, it is not the case that if you don’t live in the UK, you won’t get home fees. Luckily for expat families living outside the UK, the legislation isn’t quite as explicit as this. What you need to do is maintain an ‘Ordinary Residence’ in the UK for three years prior to the start of university. This is not the same as living in the UK – see our blog ‘What Does ‘Ordinary Residence’ Mean For Expat Families (for fee status)’ to learn more about this term. Therefore, it is possible to live outside the UK and still achieve home status at a UK university.  

Myth: We don’t have to think about fee status until the university application.  

By then, it might be too late. Fee status assessments used to decide if you are eligible for home fees typically look at the three-year period before university. By the time the university application comes around, much of this three-year period has passed and therefore you are less able to build a strong case for meeting the eligibility criteria. You should be planning for fee status 3-4 years before the start of university so that you can adapt your living/working/travel plans to make sure you have a good case for home fees by the time you are fee assessed (during university admissions).  

Assumption: People we know got home fees, so we will too. 

Fee status is highly personalised and everyone’s fee status case is unique as it is dependent on many factors such as citizenship, immigration status, residence history, travel pattern, employment terms, employment history, the university shortlist, the course applying to…the list goes on! It’s unlikely that anyone you know will have a similar fee status case to you and therefore, their chances of getting home fees will be different to yours. It’s recommended to get personal advice on your fee status eligibility as what supported another person’s case for home fees may not support your case.  

Assumption: Owning property in the UK will get my son/daughter home fees. 

More important than owning a property is the status of that property and how it is used. If the property you own is rented out to a tenant then it’s unlikely that it will support your fee status case. Rather than talk about properties, we talk about the ‘home’. There is an expectation that you have a home in the UK to claim that you are maintaining an Ordinary Residence. This may not necessarily be a property that you own, for example, it could be a rented property, but it should be somewhere that you use as a home when you are in the UK. Everyone’s circumstances are different so what might be a home in the UK for one family might look different to another’s.  

 Assumption: Moving my child to a boarding school will get him/her home fees.

This may not be the case, even if your child has been going to boarding school and living in the UK for more than three years. The fee status rules include the ‘main purpose test’ which excludes any residence in the UK where the main purpose was to receive full-time education. If your child is at boarding school but you, the parents, live outside of the UK then universities are likely to apply the main purpose test and take the view that, if not at boarding school, your child will be resident with you. This means that they will not be able to give Home fee status on that basis and you will have a more complicated case to argue your eligibility. 

UK Study Options are experts in UK University Fee Status who provide personalised advice to expat families helping them to achieve Home fee status. We visit schools all over the world on a regular basis to present seminars for parents – check our events page to see if we are in your region soon. Complete our  online form to receive a free appraisal of your case and see if you need expert guidance for your application. 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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.

Getting the Fee Status Questionnaire Right – Dos and Don’ts

If you are a borderline case for Home fees when applying to UK university, you may receive a Fee Status Questionnaire (FSQ) from one or more of the universities you are applying to. Borderline cases will be anyone who has lived outside the UK/EU for any period of time during your life. The FSQ form aims to get more information about you and your family’s background on which the university can make their final decision on your fee status. They will also ask for corresponding evidence to match what you write on the form.

Each university produces their own form and may ask for different information. Some will ask for information and evidence for the three years prior to the start of university (the most important years for establishing Ordinary Residence), others may ask for the last five years or even as far back as the birth of the student. So be prepared to explain your circumstances over a decade or more and dig out the evidence ahead of time so you’re not searching for it when you’re up against a tight deadline!

Most FSQs will ask for the following information:

  • Your immigration status.
  • Your residential history – and an explanation for any time lived outside the UK.
  • Details of visits to the UK when living outside of the UK/EU.

Dos for completing this form:

  • Explain your background fully yet succinctly – preferably use bullets points rather than paragraphs so it can be quickly read and understood.
  • Only include information/evidence that the university has asked for or that you think is very relevant.
  • Keep details/evidence in chronological order.
  • Be explicit – spell out strong evidence so they don’t miss it and explain any gaps or missing evidence.
    Clearly label corresponding evidence so it’s easy to find.
  • Get someone to sense check the form before you submit it to make sure it’s clear and logical.
  • Be aware of the deadline to return the form by.
  • Be transparent and honest.

Don’ts for completing this form:

  • Don’t lie on the form – if it unravels, you’ll jeopardise your university offer, not just your fee status.
  • Don’t waffle or write in long paragraphs which are hard to follow and time-consuming to unpick.
  • Don’t send masses of documents that have not been asked for or that are not absolutely relevant. There should be an opportunity to send further evidence later on, if necessary. If you’re not sure what is needed, give a list of available evidence on request/if required or call up the university and clarify what they need.
  • Don’t expect universities to work stuff out, hunt for information or fill in the gaps themselves. The onus is on you to explain your circumstances clearly.

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/EU Expats – don’t lose your eligibility for Home fees!

Being eligible for Home or EU fees isn’t quite as straightforward as many expats think. Families assume that having British and/or EU citizenship and owning property in the UK or EU is enough to get an offer as a Home or EU fee payer. It’s not …but read on….!

Here are some points to help you understand what the universities are looking for when the UCAS applications go in each year:

  • The universities have to undertake due diligence to identify students who are eligible for a Home OR an EU offer.
  • Most students who are at school overseas will receive a Fee Status Questionnaire in order to gather the information necessary to assess the student’s eligibility. This document may be extensive to include other categories of students such as asylum seekers or immigrants who may also be eligible as well as expats.
  • You need to prove that your permanent residence is in one country: the UK OR EU and that you maintain your status by travelling back as a family for extensive periods of time each year to one particular place. (One parent and siblings should be enough).
  • You will need a permanent home address – only one! You can’t make a case for having a permanent home in say an EU country AND England. Each of the four UK countries has a different fee structure and loan company. Depending upon your offer you may then apply to the relevant loans company. International students are not eligible for student loans.
  • Initially, the universities look back at the student’s whereabouts for three years prior to the first day of the first academic term. A student applying for 2018 entry will have to show where they lived between 2015 and 2018. If the information is not clear the universities will request information about the student’s whereabouts since birth.
  • The rules and regulations governing fee status allow for a student to be temporarily based overseas if they maintain strong links to their home by returning for perhaps a month or so each year to one address.
  • There is provision for the parents being temporarily based overseas due to their work and therefore the student having to be based with the parents.
  • Each university may ask for a variety of documents as proof of your ‘ordinary residence’ in the UK or EU such as e-tickets in and out, utility bills, property deeds or rental agreements etc even shopping transactions in one place!

Problems arise when students and parents are not clear about their ‘ordinary residence’. Many expat families that we deal with have multi-national families and could ostensibly make a case for being either UK (Scotland, England, N Ireland or Wales) with regards to their ‘ordinary residence’ as well as perhaps an EU address. I have a number of families that have several properties and/or addresses they could use in the UK and perhaps an alternative property in the EU where they may spend several weeks each year. In this case students are at risk of losing their eligibility by not maintaining links to one particular place – their ‘ordinary residence’!

Problems also arise as the rules and regulations are open to interpretation and there is no blanket policy across the universities as to information they need from the student. If a university or course is competitive they are likely to have a large team dealing with Fee Status Questionnaires. The outcome from each institution as well as the evidence they ask for varies a great deal.

Be Prepared! Contact us for your personal fee status assessment

Home tuition fees for expatriate Medical/Veterinary students

UKStudyoptions.com offers a Fee Status Appraisal specifically for expatriate families based overseas to prepare students and their families BEFORE they apply via UCAS. By completing a brief Fee Status Form we can assess the strengths and weaknesses of your case and offer you tips and advice to maximise your eligibility for Home/EU fees.

  • International student fees for medicine and veterinary reaches £300,000 (five years)
  • Home/EU fees in England totalling £45,000 (five years)
  • Scottish/EU students pay just £9,100 (five years) RUK pay £45,000

Many expats don’t realise that they are at risk of losing their eligibility because they have been based overseas on a succession of ongoing ‘temporary’ contracts. The rules and regulations governing Fee Status decisions are for guidance only and they are open to interpretation. It is therefore incumbent on each institution to decide on acceptable criteria and the basis on which they decide whether a student should be categorised as a Home or Overseas fee payer.

In addition, although the rules and regulations governing Home/EU fees versus overseas have not changed, there is a new immigration law in England that has recently come into being. This will, in due course, impact upon the length of time a student is able to be temporarily out of the UK without losing their rights for Home/EU fees and a student loan. This new law currently states that a student should be in the UK half their life or seven years, whichever is the greater. This law is currently being adopted in England and is expected to be rolled out to other UK countries.

Many expat families are confident in obtaining Home/EU fees without realising that they are at risk of losing their eligibility quite easily by not being proactive in maintaining their ‘ordinary residence’ in the UK by returning to their ‘home’ regularly (for extended periods of time as a family) and keeping track of the evidence they need to support their case.

Maintaining eligibility for Home/EU fees is particularly crucial for medical students as the difference between being admitted as a Home/EU student can amount to £250,000 with no student loans available for international students. In addition just 7.5% of places are allocated to international fee paying medical students due to the tie in with the NHS.

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.

What You Could Be Paying In Overseas Fees Compared To Home Fees

Overseas fees can range from around £12,000 a year to up to £27,000 for a lab based degree (including Maths) at Imperial and £35,000 plus for medicine or veterinary.

Many expats are still eligible for Home Fees: being settled in the UK and meet the main residence requirements – having a British or EU passport is just one aspect of eligibility, there are many others. The universities will also look at where the student has been residing in the three years prior to the first day of their university degree, if this is overseas, they will ask for details of your ‘ordinary residence’ in the UK and want to know why the student and family are based overseas, which may include information about the parent’s work contract, as well as seeking general background information. They may also ask for evidence to support a case for Home Fees and can go back to the students birth date if necessary.

Most people don’t realise until after the university applications are submitted to UCAS that they are going to have to make a case for Home Fees and send in evidence to show that they have active connections to the UK. The rules and regulations governing Home and EU fee status are vague, based on case law dating to the early 1980s and are open to interpretation by the university admissions staff.

This year (2016 entry) many students have been given a deadline of three weeks by their university choices to provide relevant evidence to support their case – not meeting the deadline may mean the universities will cancel their application. To complicate matters the UK has four governments, four countries that approach establishing a student’s fee status in a different manner and if a student is successful in obtaining Home/EU fee status at the university they have to go through a second process when they apply for student tuition fee loans.

With the real cost of an undergraduate degree estimated to be around £16,000 per head per annum, the universities are looking for students who have cut ties to their UK or EU base and have lost the right to being subsidised by the UK taxpayers. Recruiting overseas fee payers is an important income stream for universities. The Scottish Referendum in 2014 and the General Election in 2015 highlighted the issue of student fees and funding which is politically and economically driven.

Don’t be one of the families that have let their eligibility slide – make sure you know what to do to maintain your eligibility and what evidence you need to have to support your case.

I advise over a hundred families each year on their eligibility for UK/EU Fee Status – many of them are confused as to what constitutes eligibility and what evidence they need to send in to support their case. Don’t be caught out – contact www.ukstudyoptions.com for a Fee Status appraisal now.

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