UK student finance
 

After almost over. 10 yrs of school overseas for my daughters. It's time to for them to be heading to university back home in the UK. during this time. We've kept our house in the UK running via council tax, utilities payment etc. daughters are british. Unclear on the rules on student finance , would they qualify and can they be considered as home and not overseas students . Keen to hear. From. Expats returning home in a similar situation. Youngest daughter about to start her A'levels overseas , what problems or advice on this with regards to student finance down the line for when it's her time for university?

Is anyone else facing similar issue ?

Re: UK student finance
 

I believe you have to have been resident in the UK for 3 years before the start of the course. I think there have been some people who have, for some reason, been classed as resident but this seems to be very arbitrary and random. Officially it's 3 years of being back in the country I'm afraid. That's both in regard to fees and student loans, and also any bursaries, such as NHS for nursing and the like. However, I think it also depends where you've been too, as I think there might be different rules if you've stayed within the EU?

Re: UK student finance
 

More info here too:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...9#post11144189

Re: UK student finance
 

This +1

There's a post about this already on the page. Can't link to it as I'm using the tablet - look for the thread on universiy open days.

Re: UK student finance
 

Each EU country will have their own requirements and they could well be less time, but for the UK, it is 3 years residence within the EU to qualify for UK rates and funding schemes such as student loans.

Some folks who have had temporary work visas abroad have been able to get UK rates as stays away were temporary in nature, but 10 years won't fly, that's renewing a visa at best or permanent residency of some kind at worst.

Re: UK student finance
 

Ahem, Bob!

Some people get moved around on expat postings every 3 years or so, especially those expats with the oil and construction industries. One expat couple where my spouse works have been overseas for 27 years, living in loads of countries for anything from 18 months to 4 years and have never taken out PR or citizenship in any other country or put down roots anywhere. They still haven't made it 'home' to Scotland yet! I knew loads of 'continuously revolving' expat families when we were out in Singapore and there are many in other parts of SE Asia and the Middle East too.

Re: UK student finance
 

Have you been living in the same country for many years or on various expat postings in various countries in the past 10 years? If you have been only resident on non-immigrant visas whilst living overseas then it is possible to get 'home fees' status in some circumstances.

Re: UK student finance
 

Yes....and they're be insanely lucky if they blagged getting in country tuition and student loans.

I've also known a few folks do long postings, one got away with it and a few others didn't and they weren't even gone nearly as long as that.

Re: UK student finance
 

Although I am familiar with the regulations and can see good reason why some people who choose to leave the country for long periods of time should lose home fee status for themselves, I have always thought it a bit unfair to penalise their kids - after all, they usually didn't have much choice in the matter!

I realise that the parents may well benefit (because they otherwise might have ended up paying their kids' fees), I am sure there are many students whose parents don't contribute anything. £27,000 for three years is bad enough, but £45,000 is a lot worse!

Re: UK student finance
 

It's even worse than that, really though, as without access to student loans as a home student, someone is going to have to stump up for tuition fees in advance. For some students that might make the difference between being able to go to university or not.

Re: UK student finance
 

I agree, it's a lot of money to folk out. My son's university allows fees to be paid over the course of 7 months, but not all will alllow fees to be paid that way, but boy it's still a large payment monthly and the doesn't include accommodation/food etc.

We are paying tuition, son is paying his accommodation/food, but was only able to do that as he got a FAFSA loan from the US, but it's tough to get student loans depending on which country you are in. I'm sure I read on BE somewhere not too long ago about a parent who lived in Italy whose child wanted to attend university in the UK, and while the child was offered a place the parent was unable to access any student loans from Italy, and the student did not qualify for UK student loans. :(

Re: UK student finance
 

Hi we were away for nearly 13 years and our sons have not had to pay overseas student fee's, we did not tell any untruths, had no property etc in the UK while we were away, we did not use any false address etc and as I said we were granted home status by the Uni and then Student finance. Our youngest (because of the overseas education system) actually came back to the Uk without anything after nearly 11.5 years of education, he started at a 6th form did an Advanced Btec (worth 3 A levels) did 2 GCSE's Maths and Science at the local 6th form college but did English at the local Adult night school, did very wel,l was accepted at Uni (after only 2years in England) but took a gap year to work and is now currently studying his 1st year at Uni (he was also offered a grant as his college results were very high). Our oldest went straight from Aus. to Uni in the UK and was granted home status. Good luck

Re: UK student finance
 

Brits1 - I know you have posted before about your experience with student costs, which is very helpful :)

I wonder if I could ask, what was your immigration status while you were overseas? Did you have permanent residency, or were you always on visas while you were away?

Re: UK student finance
 

With the oil industry and rotating countries every 4 years .

Re: UK student finance
 

Hi

We have an Australian passport as well as our British Passport (my OH, myself and our two sons were born in the UK)