From August 2025, 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 a major change that is being made to the rules about who pays ‘home’ fees for higher education in Wales. You can read about this (and other changes), below.
Background
The rules about who pays ‘home’ fees for higher education in Wales are set by the Welsh Government (they are not set by UKCISA). They are set out in regulations, which the Welsh Government 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 Welsh Government is making a number of changes to those regulations. UKCISA’s pdf guide, ‘Who pays ‘home’ fees for higher education in Wales?’ has been updated to reflect the changes, and so has the UKCISA website. Each change is explained in a separate section below.
The first change described is for academic years that start on or after 1 August 2025. It does not matter whether that is the first, second, third or later year of your course.
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 2023'
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 2025, 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 Wales?’ (download it from the Wales 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 2025), or after.
So, if you are paying fees for an academic year that starts before 1 August 2025, 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 2025)' (on page 28)
- '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 2025)' (on page 37)
- 'Residence in British Overseas Territories, course starts on or after 1 August 2023 (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts before 1 August 2025)' (on page 68)
But if you are paying fees for an academic year that starts on or after 1 August 2025, 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 2025)' (on page 24)
- '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 2025)' (on page 32)
- 'Residence in British Overseas Territories, course starts on or after 1 August 2023 (use this category only if the academic year you are paying fees for starts on or after 1 August 2025)' (on page 63)
It was regulation 13 of the Education (Student Finance) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2025 (S.I. 2025 No.16) that made the change.
It made a similar change to the category for those with 'Residence in British Overseas Territories, course starts before 1 August 2023', too. You can read about that on page 73 of UKCISA's pdf guide, 'Who pays 'home' fees for higher education in Wales?'.
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 2025. 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 2025, as well as new starters.
Important change to '3 years in Republic of Ireland/UK/Islands, settled in UK' category
The '3 years in Republic of Ireland/UK/Islands, settled in UK' category will become more generous in the way described just above, for academic years starting on or after 1 August 2025.
However, in another respect it will become less generous.
Currently the requirement in the category to be 'settled' in the UK is tied to the day on which the first term of the first academic year actually begins. It is not tied to the standardised 'first day of the first academic year of the course' (which for autumn-starting courses is always 1 September, even if the course begins on, for example, 5 October). However, that will change for any academic year that starts on or after 1 August 2025. For any academic year that starts on or after 1 August 2025, the requirement is to be 'settled' in the UK on the standardised 'first day' of whatever academic year you are paying fees for (in the case of autumn-starting courses this standardised date is always 1 September).
This will have an important effect for people moving from the Republic of Ireland or the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man shortly before the start of their course. Currently it does not matter if they do not arrive in the UK in time for the standardised first day (for example, 1 September in the case of an autumn-starting course), they can arrive on any date as long as it is in time for the day the term actually begins. However, from 1 August 2025, if they delay arriving in the UK until after the standardised first day (for example, if they arrive on 15 September), they will not qualify as a 'home' fee payer under this category for their first year.
It is important fee assessors warn students who hope to qualify on the basis of this category and who will be starting courses from August 2025 onwards explicitly about this change, so they have plenty of time to ensure they arrive in the UK in time to meet the new requirement. It is a major change, so needs to be drawn to students' attention.
Category for those with Ukraine protection, and family
In this category, the list of what counts as 'Ukraine protection' is being expanded to include leave granted under the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme. This kind of immigration permission has just been introduced.
'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 2025 (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 2023. You can read full details of all the requirements you need to meet on page 75 of UKCISA’s pdf guide, ‘Who pays ‘home’ fees for higher education in Wales?’ (download it from the Wales Higher Education Fee Status page of the UKCISA website).
It is regulation 12 of the Education (Student Finance) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2025 (S.I. 2025 No.16) that is making the change.
Further reading
If you want to see the regulations that made the changes described in this story, they are the Education (Student Finance) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2025 (S.I. 2025 No.16).
Downloading the pdf guide
Please only use Version 6 of the pdf guide from now on. It is dated 3 February 2025.
Students can download Version 6 of the pdf guide (‘Who pays ‘home’ fees for HE in Wales?’) 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.
