Juliet C

Hi

We are at the very last stages of immigrating to BC from the UK, my son wants to continue with his education in BC when we arrive and I was hoping someone could give me advise re this, more info below

The course he wants to do in BC is a diploma in music which is over two years, anyone any idea of the cost for a resident? (I believe as an international student it is much more expensive) I believe as a resident he may be eligible for a student loan from BC loans toward this course, the only problem I see is that to apply for the loan you have to have been in Canada for at least 12 months and we will only be arriving in the summer for him to hopefully start in September. He is studying a BTEC National Award in Music here at present and should finish that (with a pass hopefully!) in the summer, will they take that into consideration and possibly give him the loan anyway as long as we have a fixed address in BC?

Has anyone else had dealings with this?

Help would be much appreciated

BTJ

Probably best to just give StudentAid BC a call - I know that isn't too helpful, but for such a specific question best to find out from the horse's mouth

Phone number is 604 660-2421 (so from the UK that'd be: 001 604 660 2421) will put you through to Enquiry BC, who might be able to pass you onto someone who can help.

As for the course - where does he want to study it in BC?

dbd33

I don't think he'll count as a resident for the purpose of studenting until he's been living in BC for a year (this based on knowing that to be the case in another province). There are three tiers of tuition, local, out of province, foreign. Best check which one he'll be before looking at loans.

Juliet C

Thank you for your prompt responses, he will be studying in the Vancouver area hopefully, I will give them a call and try and get some info, I'll post reply on here. In worst case scenario, if he were to come back to the UK to do course after having all his documents stamped in the summer when we fly over, does anyone know where we stand with him coming back once he has finished his course in the UK ? I'm sure I ready somewhere that as long as he is in BC 2-3 years out of five his residency is still valid? Can't remember if it was 2 or 3 years though?

Bear with my typing my screen is playing up and I'm also suppossed to be working!!