From August 2024, if you acquire ‘settled’ immigration status during your course, you might be able to switch from paying ‘overseas’ fees to paying ‘home’ fees for later years of your course. This is one of a number of big changes that are being made to the rules about who pays ‘home’ fees for higher education in England. You can read about all the changes below.
Background
The rules about who pays ‘home’ fees for higher education in England are set by the Government’s Department for Education (they are not set by UKCISA). They are set out in regulations, which the Department for Education 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.
The Department for Education is making a number of changes to those regulations, which will help some people in academic years that start on or after 1 August 2024 (even if it is not the first year of their course – it might be Year 2,3 or 4, for example).
UKCISA’s pdf guide, ‘Who pays ‘home’ fees for higher education in England?’ has been updated to reflect the changes, and so has the UKCISA website. Each change is explained in a separate section below.
The requirement to be ‘settled’ can be met part-way through a course
The current regulations say that if you do not have ‘settled’ immigration status at the start of your course, you cannot qualify to pay ‘home’ fees for Year 2, 3, 4 (or later) of your course on the basis of the following categories:
- '3 years in UK and Islands, settled in UK'
- '3 years in Republic of Ireland/UK/Islands, settled in UK'
- 'Residence in British Overseas Territories, course starts on or after 1 August 2022'
These categories are closed to you, because all of them include a requirement that you have settled immigration status at the beginning of your course. Because you fail to meet the requirement for ‘settled’ immigration status at the beginning of your course, you can never make up for it.
This is going to change.
For academic years that start on or after 1 August 2024, instead of being tied to the beginning of the course, it will be good enough for these categories if you have settled immigration status on the first day of whatever academic year you are paying fees for (this might be Year 2, 3, 4 or later of your course).
However, do note that this isn’t the only requirement that you need to meet to qualify for these categories – read about all the other requirements you will also have to meet in UKCISA’s pdf guide, ‘Who pays ‘home’ fees for higher education in England?’ (download it from the England Higher Education Fee Status page of the UKCISA website). You will have to meet every single requirement listed under one of the categories. You will see we have created two versions of each of the categories, depending on whether the academic year you are paying your fees for starts before the requirement changes (on 1 August 2024), or after.
So, if you are paying fees for an academic year that starts before 1 August 2024, look at:
- '3 years in UK and Islands, settled in UK (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts before 1 August 2024)' (on page 29)
- '3 years in Republic of Ireland/UK/Islands, settled in UK (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts before 1 August 2024)' (on page 38)
- 'Residence in British Overseas Territories, course starts on or after 1 August 2022 (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts before 1 August 2024)' (on page 72)
But if you are paying fees for an academic year that starts on or after 1 August 2024, look at:
- '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)' (on page 25)
- '3 years in Republic of Ireland/UK/Islands, settled in UK (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts on or after 1 August 2024)' (on page 33)
- 'Residence in British Overseas Territories, course starts on or after 1 August 2022 (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts on or after 1 August 2024)' (on page 66)
It was regulation 43(2) of the Education (Student Fees, Awards and Support) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 (S.I. 2024 No.85) that made the change.
Action for students
If you have previously been told you did not qualify for ‘home’ fees, check to see if you meet the new requirements. Remember that you need to meet all the criteria for any one category. If you do, talk to your fee assessor straightaway, about your fees for academic years that start on or after 1 August 2024. You might want to send them a link to this story.
Action for fee assessors
If you are a fee assessor, think about whether any of your existing students might be entitled to benefit from the change for years that start on or after 1 August 2024, as well as new starters.
Eligibility will continue if Ukraine Scheme leave becomes a different type of leave during the course
The current regulations say that to be eligible for ‘home’ fees on the basis of the ‘Persons granted leave under the Ukraine Schemes, and family’ category, the Ukraine Scheme leave needs to exist at the start of each academic year of the course.
The regulations are changing so that once you have qualified for the category for one year of your course, that particular requirement will become less strict for later years of your course. So for later years of your course, it will be acceptable if the ‘person granted leave under the Ukraine Schemes’ loses their Ukraine Scheme leave, as long as they have some kind of leave to remain (or British or Irish citizenship) on the first day of whatever academic year you are paying fees for.
This relaxation of the requirement will apply to any academic year that starts on or after 1 August 2024. We have added a note about it to UKCISA’s information on the ‘Persons granted leave under the Ukraine Schemes’ category.
It was regulation 41 of the Education (Student Fees, Awards and Support) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 (S.I. 2024 No.85) that made the change.
Relevance to other categories
The relaxation has been designed to help people in this particular category (the one for ‘Persons granted leave under the Ukraine Schemes, and family’). However, it is not exclusive to them. This means it can operate in any category that has a requirement for a particular type of leave to exist on the first day of each academic year after the first one, here is a list of them:
- '3 years in UK and Islands, EU Settlement Scheme settled status connection'
- 'Residence in British overseas territories, course starts on or after 1 August 2022 (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts on or after 1 August 2024)'
- '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 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 2023)'
- '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 2023)'
- '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 2023)'
- 'Those with Section 67 leave (using this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts on or after 1 August 2023)'
- '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 2023)'
- '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 as a bereaved partner, 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 for starts on or after 1 August 2023)'
In all these categories, it will be acceptable if the person with the relevant leave loses it part-way through a course, as long as they have some kind of leave to remain (or British or Irish citizenship) on the first day of whatever academic year fees are being paid for.
In reality it will be very unusual for anyone in the list of categories above to need to use the provision, but it is worth knowing that they can. We have added a note about it to the information we provide about each of the categories on the UKCISA website (some categories appear on the ‘England Higher Education fee status’ web page itself, others appear in the UKCISA pdf guide that you can download from that page).
No need to worry if a refugee becomes a British Citizen
The UKCISA information about the ‘Refugees and family’ category used to include a warning that Refugee Status was automatically lost if the refugee became a British Citizen part-way through a course. That does not matter now, because of the relaxation of the requirement that is described above. It has therefore been deleted from UKCISA’s information.
Children added to domestic violence and bereaved partner categories
The categories that make ‘Persons granted indefinite leave as a victim of domestic violence or abuse’ and ‘Those with indefinite leave as a bereaved partner’ eligible for ‘home’ fees are being expanded to include not just the people themselves, but also their children, in some circumstances.
Children will be able to use these categories for any academic years that start on or after 1 August 2024, even if they paid overseas fees for an earlier year of the same course. All the requirements they need to meet to fit into one of these categories are set out in the following sections on the UKCISA website:
It is regulation 44 of the Education (Student Fees, Awards and Support) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 (S.I. 2024 No.85) that makes this particular change.
‘Home’ fees for British Citizens of Chagossian descent
If you are a British Citizen of Chagossian descent, you should find it relatively easy to qualify for ‘home’ fees for academic years that start on or after 1 August 2024 (even if you paid ‘overseas’ fees for an earlier year of your course).
The regulations are being amended to provide for you, as long as your course did not start before August 2022. You can read full details of all the requirements you need to meet on page 79 of UKCISA’S pdf guide, ‘Who pays ‘home’ fees for higher education in England?’ (which you can download from the ‘England Higher Education fee status’ page of the UKCISA website).
It is regulation 45 of the Education (Student Fees, Awards and Support) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 (S.I. 2024 No.85) that is making the change. The Government’s Explanatory Memorandum for the regulations explains that “the British Government forcibly removed the Chagossians from the British Indian Ocean Territory/Chagos Archipelago in the late 1960s and early 1970s and has prevented them from returning”, and that is why provision is being made.
Definition of ‘UK national’ added to pdf guide
The definition of a ‘UK national’ is now included in the ‘Definitions’ section at the start of UKCISA’s pdf guide, ‘Who pays ‘home’ fees for higher education in England?’ (on page 9):
“UK national
To count as a ‘UK national’ for the purpose of this pdf guide, you must fit one of the following three bullet points:
-
- ‘British Citizen’
- Your passport describes you as a ‘British Subject’ andit also shows that you have the right of abode in the UK
- ‘British Overseas Territories Citizen’ who has that citizenship because of a connection with Gibraltar (note that this is not true of most British Overseas Territories Citizens)
A ‘British National (Overseas)’ does not count as a ‘UK national’ for the purpose of this pdf guide.”
The term is used in the eligibility criteria for the following categories of ‘home’ student:
- 'Family member of a UK national, course starts before 1 August 2022'
- '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'
- 'Brexit temporary offer for courses starting before 2028: Residence in Gibraltar'
- 'Residence in British Overseas Territories, course starts before 1 August 2022'
Further reading
If you want to see the regulations that made the changes described in this story, they are the Education (Student Fees, Awards and Support) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 (S.I. 2024 No.85).
Downloading the pdf guide
Please only use Version 7 of the pdf guide from now on. It is dated 10 February 2024.
Students can download Version 7 of the pdf guide (‘Who pays ‘home’ fees for HE in England?’) from the UKCISA website. UKCISA members will probably prefer to use the member copy of Version 7 - it can be downloaded by UKCISA members from section 2.5 of the fees section of the UKCISA online manual (look in the Resources box at the bottom of the page). It includes useful additional footnotes.
As explained at the beginning of the pdf, it is a ‘living’ document and readers should expect to see it develop over time. Please always use only the most recent version.
Correction to this story (added 20 February 2024)
Wherever you see 'Version 7' of the pdf guide mentioned in this story, please read it as 'Version 8' of the pdf guide. This is because ten days after it was published, Version 7 was updated to Version 8, purely to fix two typographical errors. That was on 20 February 2024. The typographical errors did not relate to any of the issues covered in this story.
