Paulc1969uk

Hi,

I am potentially relocating from England to Melbourne through my current employer under a Temporary Work (Skilled) subclass 457 visa. This is likely to be for a 2 year period, commencing in mid Jan 2018 subject to Visa approval, and ending in Jan 2020. I will be moving with both my wife and my daughter. My daughter will be 17 in October and will undertake the VCE Years 11 and 12 in 2018 and 2019 in Melbourne.

My query is about what impact, if any, this would have upon my daughter when we return to England re University fees i.e. if she wanted to start Uni in England in September 2020, what class of tuition fees (Home or International) would she be liable to pay?

I would be grateful for any help, advice or direction you can offer, especially from anybody who has gone through this precise scenario - I can't believe we will be the only ones.

Cheers,

Paul C.

quoll

You might get away with it as a temporary placement if you’ve kept your home, working for the same employer etc but it’ll be up to The University. I’d be more concerned at the equivalence of VCE vs A levels. To get into a decent course in a decent Uni they may not be enough and she might have to do a Foundation year. Don’t suppose you would consider her boarding with family and friends and doing A levels and just visiting you for holidays? Or maybe find a school which does the IB as well.

spuddyo

I think you may have to be resident in UK for two years prior to Uni to avoid International Fees. My daughter is currently looking at Limerick Uni, and that seems to be the information we have received.

scrubbedexpat020

Me, too. I would be especially concerned about doing an undergrad that has maths/science prerequisites. VCE is not the same level. This isn't surprising given kids study 6 VCE subjects and usually 3 'A' Levels.

Pulaski

Based on the reports of others here on BE, so long as you were on some sort of temporary work visa overseas, there seems to be a very good chance that you can argue successfully that your absence from the UK is temporary and your "usual country of residence" is still the UK even if you and your child are still living outside the UK, but that does appear to be somewhat dependant on successfully arguing your case with the uni that your child applies to.

If however you have become a permanent resident, or a citizen, of the country that you immigrated to, then arguing that your absence from the UK was temporary becomes very much harder.

GarryP

Suggestion from yea back here was to look at the International Baccalaureate. Since it's global you have less issue with its acceptability.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/austr...tralia-733810/

Tuxtrip

We had a temporary posting to Australia for 2.5 years, during which time our son studied at a local private school under the Baccalaureate program. We returned to Scotland where he completed his final two years of school. He was denied entrance to university under the free tuition regime because he had not been a full time student in the UK for the past 3 years. We were required to pay Overseas Student fees! Not so if he had come from one of the EU countries though.
I'm not sure if the English system is the same, but assume nothing. Find out for certain before you leave for Australia and get it in writing.

rammygirl

You need to check both the University itself, which does have some discretion. And the student loan company, which doesn’t.

It used to be that if a student was a dependent and spent time out of the UK because a parent had a temporary posting overseas, then they were still considered domestic. There were some guidelines about how long could be spent away etc. Not sure if that is still the case.

Have a good look on the student loan website (which by the way is terrible so good luck finding the rules) to see if they define domestic.
Then contact universities direct, preferably by e mail so you have something in writing from the person in charge of finance in the Bursary.

Of course if she had a UK address the whole time, no problem......but when you come to submit info for the loans then they check with HMRC on your income.

You may find that although a uni will charge domestic fees that the student loan company will not lend the cash. This will mean funding up front and no support with living expenses. Some universities will do a PAYG deal to help with the expenses.

Depending on the field of interest it might actually be a good thing to get work experience for a few years then consider university if necessary. Many companies are catching onto the fact that very bright young people are rejecting University and providing excellent training schemes that will get people to the same point but with no debt.
Not going to happen with medicine or other areas that mandate a degree but many career paths are not degree specific.