Home Student Status for Non-Resident British Citizen

[ukkhan27]

Greetings,

I have been searching for hours for the right spot on immigrationboards.com to post my query but unfortunately, I am still not sure if there is any page or specific area dedicated to the above-mentioned issue.

I am a British national working abroad for the past four years but I am now concerned about the issue that my children will not be considered as home student for higher education in the UK.

As far I am aware, a British citizen must seek school level education three years in advance to the first day in the university as per below guideline.

"Generally, individuals must be resident and ‘settled’ in the UK on ‘the first day of the academic year’ for which they are paying fees to be eligible for home student status. With some exceptions, students must also have been ‘ordinarily resident' in the UK on the first day of the first academic year of their course and for the three years before that date."

I would be grateful for the respected opinion/advice of the members in this regard, if anyone has experience such a situation and if anything can be done to apply to a UK university as home student while not meeting the above criteria. I understand there are certain instances where a student can still be considered as home student if they regularly pay their council tax or by registering their detail with local authority but I am not sure if this is true. I would really appreciate your inputs here.
Best wishes,

[lolo2]

You need to ask these questions directly to the University that your children are expecting to attend.

UKCISA has some guidance on this topic: https://www.ukcisa.org.uk/student-advice/fees/

However every University has specific provisions to classify students as Home or International for fee purposes.

As an example: https://ask.herts.ac.uk/will-i-pay-home ... ition-fees

[secret.simon]

A lot turns on being "ordinarily resident" in the UK. Merely being a British citizen does not give access to many benefits, such as student financing or even NHS access. You need to be "ordinarily resident" in the UK for those purposes.

"Ordinarily resident" is a vague legal term, but takes into account where your main home is, how long you have been away and why you have been away.

You are ordinarily resident in the residence area for your category if you have habitually, normally and lawfully resided in that area from choice. Temporary absences from the residence area should be ignored and therefore would not stop you being ordinarily resident. It is also accepted in the UK courts that an individual can be ordinarily resident in more than one place at the same time; individuals wishing to demonstrate this would have to be living a lawful, normal and habitual residence in each of the areas in question.

If you can demonstrate that you have not been ordinarily resident in the relevant residence area only because you, or a family member, were temporarily working outside the relevant residence area, you will be treated as though you have been ordinarily resident there.

Also see the UKCISA page on ordinarily resident case law.

Just to reiterate, mere British citizenship does not give one access to benefits or student financing or free NHS access. Other conditions, such as having paid into the NI system or being ordinarily resident in the UK (for the latter two) may apply in addition to British citizenship.

[ukkhan27]

Thank you for your valued comments. Much appreciated.