HE Northern Ireland home fees: minor update
August 07, 2026
A very minor change that will benefit very few people has been made. Information about it has been incorporated into UKCISA’s materials about 'home' fee status for higher education in Northern Ireland.
Background
The rules about who pays ‘home’ fees for higher education in Northern Ireland are set by the Northern Ireland Assembly (they are not set by UKCISA). They are set out in regulations, which the Northern Ireland Assembly amends over time. The regulations identify all the different ‘categories’ of student who can insist on paying at the ‘home’ rate. They set out all the requirements a student needs to meet, to fit one of those categories. Because the government regulations can be difficult to understand, UKCISA provides information to help you understand the requirements of the regulations.
In a number of different categories (not in all categories), there is a requirement for a particular type of immigration permission to exist not just at the start of the course, but also on the first day of each academic year after the first one. Usually this requirement will not cause a problem, because:
- Immigration law dictates that if a person makes an application to extend or change their immigration permission before it expires, and that application is not decided before the expiry date, they are treated as still having that permission while they wait for a decision to be made (and if their application is refused, then also while they wait for an appeal or administrative review of the decision). This means that even people who seem to have reached the expiry date of their permission are often treated as still having their permission.
- The requirement does not apply if the person has some other kind of leave to remain, or British or Irish citizenship, instead.
The change
A further situation where the requirement does not apply has been added:
- Where a person is still waiting for a decision on an immigration application for some kind of leave to remain, but they made that application late (after their previous immigration permission expired). Not everyone who applies late is covered, though - it is only if their immigration application fits the limited circumstances described in paragraph SUI 13.1 of the Immigration Rules (so that it deserves consideration even though it is late) that they are included. Paragraph SUI 13.1 can be found in Part Suitability of the Immigration Rules.
How many people will this affect?
This will affect hardly anyone.
Where can I find paragraph SUI 13.1 of the Immigration Rules?
Go to paragraph SUI 13.1 of the Immigration Rules (in Part Suitability of the Immigration Rules) if you want to see the limited circumstances where an immigration application will be considered even though it was submitted late. It includes situations where there was “good reason” why an application was made up to 14 days late, for example.
Is the change incorporated in UKCISA’s information?
Yes, the change has been incorporated into UKCISA’s documents explaining the requirements for all the affected categories. The affected categories are as follows:
- '3 years in UK and Islands, EU Settlement Scheme settled status connection'
- 'Brexit protected rights: EU national / EU family / Family of relevant person of Northern Ireland'
- 'Brexit protected rights: EU national, 3 years in UK & Islands'
- 'Brexit protected rights: Worker and family'
- 'Brexit protected rights: Child of worker'
- 'Brexit protected rights: Child of a Swiss national'
- 'Refugees, and family (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts on or after 1 August 2024)'
- 'Those granted humanitarian protection, and family (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts on or after 1 August 2024)'
- 'Those granted stateless leave, and family (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts on or after 1 August 2024)'
- 'Those with Section 67 leave (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts on or after 1 August 2024)'
- 'Persons granted Calais leave to remain (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts on or after 1 August 2024)'
- 'Those with discretionary leave, and family (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts on or after 1 August 2024)'
- 'Person granted indefinite leave as a victim of domestic violence or abuse, and children (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts on or after 1 August 2024)'
- 'Those with indefinite leave on the bereaved partner route, and children (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts on or after 1 August 2024)'
- 'Persons granted leave under the Afghan Schemes, and family (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts on or after 1 August 2024)'
- ‘Persons granted leave under the Ukraine Schemes, and family (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts on or after 1 August 2024)'
Students can access all of these documents from the ‘Full list of categories for HE in Northern Ireland’ on UKCISA’s website. The change is incorporated in a note that begins ‘Note: Once you have qualified for the category for one year of your course”, in each of the documents.
UKCISA members will probably prefer to use the member versions of the documents – they can be downloaded from Section 8 of the fees section of the UKCISA online manual, and contain useful additional footnotes.
Further reading
If you want to see the regulations that made the change described above, they are the Education (Student Support) (Amendment No.2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026 (S.R.N.I. 2026 No.136), regulation 4.
Changes to UKCISA's documents about other categories
You may notice a new date (31 July 2026) on UKCISA's documents explaining the requirements for a few other categories:
- '3 years in UK and Islands, settled in UK (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts on or after 1 August 2024)'
- 'UK national or Irish citizen (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts on or after 1 August 2024)'
- 'Long residence'
- 'Family member of a settled person, course starts on or after 1 August 2024'
- 'Brexit temporary offer for courses starting before 2028: UK nationals and family with residence in Europe or overseas territories'
- 'Brexit temporary offer for courses starting before 2028: Settled and exercised a right of residence'
- 'Residence in Gibraltar'
These categories have not changed in the same way as the categories mentioned at the start of this story, they have just been updated to show this year's home fee amounts.
Further developments
The Northern Ireland Assembly makes changes to the regulations (and how they interpret them) over time. Make sure you check UKCISA’s requirements documents regularly to ensure you are using the latest version. They are ‘living’ documents and you should expect them to change over time.
If you are a UKCISA member then subscribe to the 'Fees assessment' forum category of the UKCISA forum, where we sometimes post stories for those who work in fees assessment.
