Student loan / grant eligibilty

p.pete

I am intending to start University in either England or Wales in September 2006. I am an EU citizen and have been living and working in the UK since (late) October 2003.

The DFES website contains the following statement regarding eligibilty for a student loan / grant:

"If you are an EU (including UK) national and you have
lived in the UK and Islands (apart from temporary
absences) for the three years before the start of your
course i.e. since 1 September 2002 for a course
starting on 1 September 2005, you may be able to
obtain a student loan and any grants for which you are
eligible"

I'll literally be short of this 3 year period by a handful of weeks so I wrote to the DFES asking how I would be effected. Their response was that I won't be eligible for any of the grant or the student loan for any of my years in University, which was a bit of a kick in the teeth!

Has anybody heard of similar situations to this before and what happened, or has anyone advice as to how I should proceed (besides the obvious of being economical with the truth as to when I started working here). Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated :-)

melancholly

i'd imagine that they're quite strict about it... unfortunately for you! is it an option to work for another year before going - thereby becoming eligible for grants and banking lots of savings to help see you through?
someone else may know of grants for EU citizens (I only know of ones for postgrads i'm afraid).

p.pete

Naturally I can work for an extra year but I'm going to be 27 when I start as it is. I know people start later in life but I want to take the opportunity now while I have the momentum. Naturally I'm trying to save as much as I can at the moment in preparation for when I walk away from my income

raa_thistle

There is at least one university which has courses running january to january (Derby university). If you were to enrole on one of these then that would be three years and you would be eligible. Unfortunately i don't know of any others so this may not be suitable.

Northumbria University has some courses running from January to January and I'm sure more must do as well. Google provides once again.

p.pete

Thanks for the suggestion raa_thistle, I'm eager to get started as soon as possible though I know it'd be a matter of months but I'm already through the UCAS system and have received a few offers from Universities which I want to go for.

I'll probably end up in Wales so there's a possible grant towards fees that I could go for - It covers the fee rise in years 2 and 3. It's supposed to be for Welsh students and also non-UK EU students. So hopefully if I'm not considered UK for the normal grants they won't decide that suddenly I am UK (but not Welsh) for the Welsh grants.

I've written to DFES again to see what their response is...
(after that I'll be looking for banks that offer loans to mature students pursuing psychology degrees, I know HSBC don't - any ideas there?)

Crispy_Ambulance

I can appreciate it is frustrating waiting until after September 2006, but you would be much better off if you hang on until you qualify for some funding. The DfES will not budge on their regulations and if you wait another year, you can build up some savings.

Volcano

A couple of people I know:

#1: A UK citizen lived all their life in UK, moved to Ireland for 3 years where they applied through UCAS to study in UK. Despite appealing and seeking the advice of a specialised education solicitor, they were refused any kind of financial help from their LEA or any other source for that matter, and were told they would only be eligible if they lived in the UK for at least 3 years. Luckily they were classified as a 'home student' for the exemption of paying tuition fees.

#2: UK citizen, lived in France for 20 years before coming to UK and applying through UCAS. Blatantly lied on their application form and said they'd lived in the UK all their life. Received full student loan/tuition fees etc for the duration of their course.


Of course I wouldn't suggest doing anything illegal but it does make you wonder........