This category is our interpretation of provisions in regulation 3 paragraphs (a), (b), and (c)(ii)-(c)(iii) (titled 'Relevant connection with Scotland') in the fees regulations.
This is a new category
This category is new for autumn 2023 onwards. It applies to academic years beginning on or after 1 August 2023. It has been introduced following a consultation that the Scottish Government held in early 2023. See our news item, Scotland: Consultation response, new fees and student support regulations.
The regulations state that this category provides for "a person (other than a person who has applied for refugee status) who has been informed in writing by [the UK Home Office] that they have been granted leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom and whose leave has not expired". Below, we use the term 'granted leave to enter or remain'.
This category does not provide for those who have applied for refugee status. However, such people are already provided for elsewhere in the regulations; see Paragraph 7 (below) for those who have been recognised as a refugee. Scottish Government also stated, in its consultation response, that it does not intend this new provision to be used by those in the UK with Student route permission:
“Those who enter the UK on a study visa will remain ineligible for home fee status and student financial support as they have entered the UK for the purposes of education and therefore do not meet the ordinary resident test.”
Those in the UK as the dependants of Student visa holders will, in theory, be able to use this category. However, they will be subject to the ordinary residence requirement and, as such, many will not yet have acquired three years’ residency.
Criteria
To be eligible for ‘home’ fees under this category, you must meet all of the following criteria on the relevant date [see Definitions]:
(a) you must be:
- a person who has been granted leave to enter or remain, whose leave has not expired; or
- the spouse, civil partner, or child, of such a person; and
(b) you must be ordinarily resident [see Definitions] in Scotland. However, if you are ordinarily resident in Scotland because you moved from elsewhere in the UK and Islands to undertake a course, then you are considered to be ordinarily resident wherever you moved from; and
(c) your ordinary residence in Scotland on the relevant date must not be attributable to / connected with any period of residence in Scotland that was wholly/mainly for the purpose of receiving full-time education within the immediately preceding three-year period. If it is, then you will not be eligible under this category. The only exception to this which looks possible is if you are someone who has been granted settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme and, prior to being granted that, you had acquired the right of permanent residence in the UK "as a result of residence for full-time education which” led to that right; and
(d) you must also have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands for the full three year period before the relevant date, eg if your course begins in October 2023, the date in (a) above will be 1 August 2023 and you must have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands from 1 August 2020 to 31 July 2023; and
(e) the main purpose for your residence in the UK and Islands must not have been to receive full-time education during any part of that three-year period. The only exception to this which looks possible is if you are someone who has been granted settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme and, prior to being granted that, you had acquired the right of permanent residence in the UK "as a result of residence for full-time education which” led to that right, and provided that you were ordinarily resident in the EEA and/or Switzerland immediately prior to the five-year period of UK residence which led to you obtaining this right.
Continuing students can potentially becoming eligible under this category from 1 August 2023
In June 2023, we asked the Scottish Government about this new category. We wanted to know if, in its view, this new provision could, from 1 August 2023, be used by a student who had already started their course and is continuing this, as well as by a student who will be starting a new course.
We gave Scottish Government the scenario of a student who was not eligible for ‘home’ fees before 1 August 2023 but who, as they embark on their second or third or fourth year on or after 1 August 2023, is asking to have their fees status reassessed for that particular year onwards.
We asked this because the new provisions, contained in regulation 3 paragraphs (a), (b), and (c)(ii)-(c)(iii) of the Education (Fees) (Scotland) Regulations 2022, taking effect for an academic year beginning on or after 1 August 2023, seem to allow this.
In response, Scottish Government has confirmed to us that if a continuing student met this new criteria on their relevant date (at the start of their course) then they will be eligible for 'home' fee status from 1 August 2023 onwards under this category.
Remember that such a person needs to not only have been granted leave to enter or remain on their own relevant date but also needs to have met all of the residency crieria on this date too.
Saving provision for those who fail the ordinary residence test
You will be treated as having been ordinarily resident in the relevant area for the three-year period if you were born, and spent the greater part of your life, in the relevant area and
- your parents, or either of them, have been ordinarily resident in the relevant area throughout the three-year period and you are not an independent student; or
- you have been ordinarily resident in the relevant area for at least one year of the specified period.
You are an ‘independent student’ if, prior to the relevant date:
- you are aged 25 years or over; or
- you are married or in a civil partnership; or
- you have no parent living; or
- you had the care of a person under the age of 18 years who was wholly or mainly financially dependent upon you; or
- you have been self-supporting out of your earnings for periods aggregating not less than 3 years. You may need to seek advice about whether you can be assessed as having been ‘self-supporting’. This is explained in the Schedule 2 paragraph 4(3) of the fees regulations.
Eligibility for the 'RUK' fee
We will be asking Scottish Government for confirmation regarding 'RUK' fee eligibility under this category.
Students from the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man
If you fail paragraph (b), above, and you will be treated as being ordinarily resident in the Islands, check with your institution about what fee rate they will charge you (they might have a special 'Islands' rate).