International or Home Student UK Uni Fees

My son will be going to the UK next year for Univeristy but I am unsure if we will be expected to pay Home or International fees. My husband has been working for the same company for 20+ years

we spent 16 years in the EU then came to HK 6 years ago the last 3 years we have been working on a local hire contract here in HK as there was no job for him back in the EU. We are all UK passport holders and have a property in the EU. Does anyone have any advice.

I went to uni a long long time ago so I cannot give you current advice, back when I went is was called UCCA and polytechnics were separate applications now I think it is combined and called UCAS. but I think it boils down to whether you have a residence in the UK, back when I applied a lot of people had the same issue you faced, some people got home some people got overseas. From what I remember it depended on property, I think you had to show whether you owned one in the UK, but I seem to also remember something about residence i.e. whether you actually lived there as well prior to applying. I am sorry I cant be of further help but it was a big issue when I applied, I paid overseas fee's but I had almost no ties to the UK and certainly no property there. If you have property in the EU, I think that should stand you in good stead. From what I remember though there was a lot of ambiguity


I had a hunt around and this is what I found:


UK citizens aren’t automatically given home student status. Home fees usually apply to EU nationals who have lived within the EU for the three years immediately prior to starting their course.


Overseas fees apply to all non-EU students, as well as UK and EU citizens who have not been resident in the EU for the past three years.


The fee status of a student as either “home” or “overseas” is set by the Government and may be found on the Office of Public Information website at www.opsi.gov.uk/stat.htm by searching on the key words 'Fees and Awards'.


The UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) produce an excellent summarised version of these regulations in the form of information sheets. You can download a copy of these at:


http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/files/pdf/info_sheets/tuition_fees_ewni.pdf (for study in England, Wales or Northern Ireland)


http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/files/pdf/info_sheets/tuition_fees_scotland.pdf (for study in Scotland)

To CASSY27,

Hi, our daughter is just going into year 2 at Uni, we are UK passport holders with property in the UK, but we had been in HK 10 years when we applied for home status. She was offered it at each uni she got offered a conditional place at through UCAS. The university send you a questionnaire, and each case is dealt with on an individual basis. Basically it is down to the individual uni to decide who they want to give home status to, although there are certain criteria you need to fill which will help with your case. For example property,contract work here, visits 'home'each year etc. Saying that, our friends daughter got home status after being here 13 years on permanent employment, my other friends son got it after having never lived in the UK although he was born there. So it is definately worth a try applying.

I am surprised it is still so ambiguous. Just so you know though if you do apply as an overseas student, your son will find it easier to get into or receive lower offers for places at competitive universities. It actually depends on what your son plans to study and what his mock exam results are. Excluding Oxbridge and confining what I say to the top 5 various universities in the UK. Each university will have their individual departments vet the application before making an offer or rejecting. Some departments at some universities if not all get funding depending on how many overseas students they have enrolled in their program, obviously it is a major source of income for universities that rely mainly on government funding. Which means in a department that is competitive and has limited space an overseas fee's student would be preferred to one who pays home fee's and standards are often relaxed. So it is sometimes worthwhile to pay the fee because of the impact it has on future earnings (though I am aware that may not be possible or impractical). I know this because I was offered a place to read at the LSE as an overseas student which I of course accepted. I would not have made the grade as a home fee's student based on mock exam results for A-levels. That investment has paid off more than 20 fold by now and probably 100 fold by the end of my life.

Thats true that you are often given a higher priority as an overseas student, or have lower grades accepted as it means more money for the Uni.