What part of the UCAS application form affects my fee status?
Certain information that a student enters into their UCAS application form can be used by universities to assess a student’s fee status as Home or Overseas, and this status dictates what tuition fees a student pays for their university course.
Changes have been made to the UCAS application form for 2025 admissions which are intended to support universities in making clearer fee status decisions. So, what are the additional fields, how should you fill them in and in what way could they affect how your fee status is decided?
Note: This article gives British or Irish expatriates living abroad some insight into how information in the UCAS form will impact their fee status. If your circumstances are different, this article may not be appropriate for you. Fee status assessments are complex and based on many different aspects of your circumstances – always get personal advice on your fee status.
From 2025, the UCAS form has some additional fields that may affect how universities classify your fee status; Home or Overseas. The most notable addition is the new ‘Where you live’ section which asks for details of where you have physically been living and for what reason.
In this section the form will ask you to continue to enter in addresses until you have covered the full three-year period prior to 1st September of the year you start university. If you have lived at the same address for more than three years then you will only need to enter your “current address”. But, if you have moved house recently you may need to include more than one address to complete the section. This address history is a relevant detail that can be used to guide universities in assessing your ordinary residence and if you are eligible for Home fees, although this alone should not determine your fee status.
If you live outside the UK or Republic of Ireland at the moment, or have done within the last three years, you should put the address(es) you live/lived at abroad in this field, with the dates you have been living there. For example, if your normal home is the UK but you are physically living in Bahrain because your parent works there and you attend school there, you would put your Bahrain address in this field.
You should not put your UK, Irish or EEA family home in this field if you do not physically live there and you only visit this home for holidays (i.e. during school breaks).
For each address that you enter within this three-year period, you must explain the reason why you live(d) there, for example, whether you live there temporarily for your parent’s work. It depends on your individual circumstances what reason you put here so it is important to get personal advice.
If you are at a UK boarding school, you should put the school address in this field and select the designated ‘reason’ option to indicate it is boarding school.
It is important to note that once you have entered your of address history for the required period, the form will ask you a further question to identify your “home address”. This might not be an address where you are physically living but one you still consider and use as a home. For example, if you are temporarily living in Bahrain because of your parent’s work, your “home address” might be your permanent family home back in the UK where you visit and stay consistently during school breaks.
This section also asks you to give your “residential category” where you need to choose the category that mostly describes your UK immigration status. For example, if you are a British passport-holder and your permanent home is in England, then you would choose “UK Citizen – England”.
It’s important to complete these fields as accurately and transparently as possible to avoid having your application cancelled or suspended – see the UCAS Declaration to understand what you are agreeing to when you complete your UCAS application.
Although these new fields are designed to help you communicate your circumstances more clearly to universities and for them to assess your fee status more easily, it may be the case that the information you have entered into your UCAS form is not sufficient for a university to determine your fee status. After you have applied, you may have to complete a fee status questionnaire for the individual universities you have applied to so your fee status can be determined.
If you feel that you have been given the wrong fee status based on the information you provided on your UCAS application form, you can query this with the university directly and request to complete a fee status questionnaire which will give you the opportunity to explain your circumstances fully. You should be prepared to submit further information and evidence of your circumstances to demonstrate that you are eligible for Home fees.
As fee status specialists, we support expat families all over the world navigate fee status assessments and achieve Home fees. Get in touch for personal advice on your fee status eligibility.
