dunroving

I need some help from those of you who DID successfully negotiate international fee waiver for your progeny after returning from overseas.

Am trying to get a waiver of the international tuition/fee part for an incoming postgrad student (just completed her undergrad at my university. Details are:

Father British, mother not, they have lived overseas for a long time.

Student was born overseas, and is a resident of overseas country, but not a citizen (and is therefore not eligible for financial aid from that country). She is a UK citizen only, and always has been.

Student has been living in UK for 6 years as a full-time student, paying whopping international tuition/fees, but returning overseas during holidays.

She is a top-notch student who will willingly pay her own way at least for a first/MPhil year (just missed out on some highly competitive scholarships), but can not afford the £12,000+ yearly international tuition/fees.

I want to plead her case with whoever it takes, but that's really what I am asking - for those who were successful, who was the magic gatekeeper who helped you out? And what were the magic ingredients that made the difference?

Any advice gratefully appreciated - I really would like to help out this student as she thorougly deserves it. I have already managed to get a part-time research assistant post (she was going to work P-T as a lifeguard) and all we need to do now is figure out the tuition/fees.

bobbarker12345

Universities are under stress from funding cuts from the government. Any chance they get to stick it to someone they will do. Ive had problems with fee status and Ive been back 5 years but I still have to argue and fill out forms.

dunroving

Yes, I knew the former, and that international students are the cash cow of many universities, but I was looking for possible solutions.

Are you still paying international fees or resident fees? If the latter, any tips on what made the difference?

bobbarker12345

i think the difficulty with her case is that she has already been paying international student fees for 6 years. just like it is when i was in the USA, you have to prove that you are not in the country only for educational purposes.

what i did was when i came back i said that my permanent address in the UK was at my nans house and most universities didnt care, birmingham and manchester asked me to fill out fee assessments. even now after i have completed a postgrad degree at essex as a home student, im still being asked to complete fee assessments. if i had to pay international fees, i couldnt have afforded to go to uni.

sorry i cant be of more help.

Englishmum

Dunroving: what strong connections does the prospective student's parents retain with the UK?

When my daughter applied for her first degree course in England, what the admissions offices wanted was:

1) Proof that we were only temporarily resident overseas and hadn't emigrated ie. that we would be returning to live in the UK.

We were asked to provide:

A letter from my husband's employer (on company headed paper) stating that it was a temp expat posting and that we were on non-immigrant visas (and also the HR person who wrote the letter added that my spouse was still paying NI Insurance stamps, deducted from his salary).

Why doesn't she have dual citizenship if her mother isn't British? Would that be a way of getting grants/scholarships from her country of residence?

Proof that we still retained our home in the UK (they asked us to send in copies of the rental income on the headed monthly statement from the property management co. (estate agency)

Photocopies of our visas from our passports

I don't have the faintest idea how higher degrees are financed in the UK, but from what you say about this young woman it sounds like her dad is a permanent resident overseas if he's been out of the UK for many years? It doesn't sound like she would qualify for home fees status?

dunroving

No, that's useful, thanks.

dunroving

Yes, that's my concern, too - I vaguely recalled that most of the successful appeals I'd read on here were based on two things:

1) the parents went away due to (temporary) job reasons
2) the children had no choice in the decision of being taken out of the country

- on both principles, this student doesn't have a leg to stand on (parents have no intention of returning any time soon, and student wasn't taken out of the country, she was born overseas). The bizarre thing is that if she were successful in getting a studentship (scholarship), they'd waive all of her fees regardless of whether the fees were international or home student fees.

Spacecake799

Hi,

Out of interest, had you been out of the UK for longer than the 3 years, and did they question the address or did you just use your nans address as though it was yours?

Many thanks

Carole

formula

Are the parents living in the mother's country? Can she get loans from that country? I assume she can have the same citizenship as her mother.

If they are not living in her mother's country, can they argue her case for student loans/bank loans, in the country she and her parents are resident in; as I assume her parents pay taxes to that country?

As someone has already said and as you will know, government funding cuts (and more cuts to come) has meant that universities have to keep to the letter of the law now to make sure they get all the money they are due from the student. The government can't afford to top up the shortfall anymore and it looks like Scotland will be hit hard if the Barnet Formula is removed.

For many years, Barnett has been calling for his "Barnett formula" to stop (where every Scot, Welsh and NI, is given more money from Westminster) as it was only meant to be a temporary payment to help these countries. From all this extra money these countries have received each year from London, they have been able to give manyfreebies that England could not afford to do.

I can't see the Barnett Formula continuing, with all the cuts the UK needs to make to clear the massive debts Gordon and his cronies ran up. If the Scots hadn't been in power in government for the last decade, the Barnett formula would have gone years ago.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle5489186.ece

dunroving

Yes, she is a resident of the mother's country (where the parents live, and where she visits in the holidays - sorry to be so vague, but because this is a student, I don't want to put too much specific information out there). She can not become a citizen of the mother's country, and is not eligible for scholarships from the mother's country (even though she/student is a permanent resident of that country). This will likely be the main basis for me asking on her behalf for an international fee/tuition waiver. No harm in trying, I suppose.

formula

I assume it's a country that won't allow dual citizenship and she choose to be British over the country she resides in? If it is from the country I am thinking of, then she should still qualify for a bank loan from that country as it is her mother's country and her country of residence.

Or if she is worried about building up too much debt, can she find a company to finance her in return for her working for them for so many years when she qualifies? I assume from what you say she missed the British scholarships, so what about trying companies in her country of residence? Worth a shot?

Does your university or a past student university group, provide financial help (grant or low interest rate loans) for hardship cases?

Failing that, as you say, you can ask for International fees to be waived, but I'm not sure on what grounds you could ask for that? If you don't ask your don't get, I suppose.

BritishIGuess

I wish you the best of luck with this - My parents paid an absolute fortune for my education because of this. Our experience makes me think that it is basically down to luck and the education facility that you are dealing with. I was never able to be classed as a "local resident/local student" even after not leaving the U.K. for almost 5 years, no holidays overseas or trips to Europe, my sibling however was granted it in less than 2 years,

JAJ

"Letter of the law" is ordinary residence, not the same thing as physical presence. But without any independent appeal process, it appears the university can decide all of this on a whim.

But it does look like ordinary residence test is failed.

Dunroving - is she absolutely sure she cannot become a citizen of her mother's country. Most western countries do now allow mothers to pass on citizenship.

Englishmum

Where did Dunroving say her mother was from a Western country? I suspect it is a South East Asian or South Asian/ME country.

I know for a fact that Singapore does not allow dual citizenship for adults but it is allowed for children only; if they decide to take up Singapore citizenship then they have to prove that they have renounced any other citizenship ie. a letter confirming this from a foreign embassy or High Commission.

The ironic thing though is that males have to do National Service from the ages of 171/2 full time for a couple of years and then for a fortnight every year until the age of 40....not just Singapore citizens but the sons of PR's as well, even though they are say, British, Australian, German, US citizens etc. (although the PR's themselves don't have to do NS!)

dunroving

Yes, it's a dual citizenship issue, as a couple of you have figured out - she can take her mother's citizenship, but she'd have to renounce her UKC. Her mother's country doesn't allow dual citizenship.