From August 2024, if you acquire ‘settled’ immigration status (or if you become a UK national or Irish citizen) 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 Northern Ireland. You can read about all the changes below.
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.
The Northern Ireland Assembly 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 Northern Ireland?’ 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 previous regulations said that if you did not have ‘settled’ immigration status at the start of your course, you could not qualify to pay ‘home’ fees for Year 2, 3, 4 (or later) of your course on the basis of the '3 years in UK and Islands, settled in UK' category.
The category was closed to you, because it included a requirement that you had settled immigration status at the beginning of your course. Because you failed to meet the requirement for ‘settled’ immigration status at the beginning of your course, you could never make up for it.
This is changing.
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 this category 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 this category – 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 Northern Ireland?’ (download it from the Northern Ireland Higher Education Fee Status page of the UKCISA website). You will have to meet every single requirement listed in the category. You will see we have created two versions of the category, 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 31)
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 27)
It was regulation regulation 15(a) of the Education (Student Support, etc.) (Amendment No.2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024 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.
The requirement to be a ‘UK national or an Irish citizen’ can be met part-way through a course
The previous regulations said that if you were not a ‘UK national or an Irish citizen’ at the start of your course, you could not qualify to pay ‘home’ fees for Year 2, 3, 4 (or later) of your course on the basis of the ‘UK national or Irish citizen’ category.
The category was closed to you, because it included a requirement that you were a ‘UK national or an Irish citizen’ at the beginning of your course. Because you failed to meet the requirement to have one of those nationalities at the beginning of your course, you could never make up for it.
This is changing.
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 this category if you have one of those nationalities 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 this category – 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 Northern Ireland?’ (download it from the Northern Ireland Higher Education Fee Status page of the UKCISA website). You will have to meet every single requirement listed in the category. You will see we have created two versions of the category, 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:
- 'UK national or Irish citizen (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts before 1 August 2024)' (on page 41)
But if you are paying fees for an academic year that starts on or after 1 August 2024, look at:
- '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)' (on page 39)
It was regulation 15(c) of the Education (Student Support, etc.) (Amendment No.2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024 (S.R.N.I. 2024 No.157) 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.
Note you can now disregard the paragraph headed ‘UK national or Irish citizen date change’ that appeared in our news story about ‘Version 4 of ‘Who pays ‘home’ fees for HE in Northern Ireland?’ on 28 March 2024. That change has been overtaken now (by the change described in this story), before it had a chance to operate.
Eligibility will continue if Ukraine Scheme leave becomes a different type of leave during the course
The previous regulations said 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 needed 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, and family’ category.
It was regulation 21 of the Education (Student Support, etc.) (Amendment No.2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024 (S.R.N.I. 2024 No.157) 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'
- '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 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)’
- '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 (using 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)'
- '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 for starts on or after 1 August 2024)'
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 ‘Northern Ireland 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.
Category for persons granted leave under the Ukraine Schemes, and family
Another development that will help people use this category in future is the expansion of the list of what counts as ‘leave under the Ukraine Schemes’. The list is being expanded to include leave granted under the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme. This kind of immigration permission doesn’t exist yet, but will be introduced in 2025.
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 12 of the Education (Student Support, etc.) (Amendment No.2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024 (S.R.N.I. 2024 No.157) that makes this particular change.
Category for ‘Brexit protected rights: Child of a Swiss national’
In this category we used to explain that pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme would be lost if the holder stayed outside the UK and Islands for a continuous period of more than two years. That period has now changed to four years, in the case of a Swiss national or a family member of a Swiss national. This is because of a change made by the Immigration (Leave to Enter and Remain) (Amendment) Order 2024 (S.I.2024 No.663), which came into effect on 21 May 2024.
Further reading
If you want to see the regulations that made most of the changes described in this story, they are the Education (Student Support, etc.) (Amendment No.2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024 (S.R.N.I. 2024 No.157). The regulations were published on 23 July 2024.
Downloading the pdf guide
Please only use Version 6 of the pdf guide from now on. It is dated 10 August 2024.
Students can download Version 6 of the pdf guide (‘Who pays ‘home’ fees for HE in Northern Ireland?’) from the UKCISA website. UKCISA members will probably prefer to use the member copy of Version 6 - 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.
If you have any questions about any of these changes and would like to talk to someone about them, please contact our student advice line.
