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I have an conditional offer from a university, course starting in September 2014. I have the UK nationality, but have only lived there for one year (I left when I was about one year old), and am now living in France. I have called Student Finance England, and it came out I could get this loan if I could prove I was in England before the 1st of September (a plane or Eurostar ticket should suffice). However I can't find any written information confirming this.

Is this true?

jonsca
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user13644
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2 Answers2

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According to GOV.UK, you can only apply for Student Finance if:

  • you’re a UK national or have ‘settled status’ (no restrictions on how long you can stay)
  • you normally live in England
  • you’ve been living in the UK for 3 years before starting your course

Since you don't fulfill the criterion 2 and 3, you are technically not eligible for Student Finance.

Since you have received information from Student Finance England that you can apply for the maintenance loan, you should either write to them or call them again, to confirm the information given to you.

Skaty
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I think you're eligible for the tuition fee loan but not the maintenance loan. I think that SFE were suggesting that you'd be eligible under point 4 here

4: People with the right of permanent residence in the UK

If you satisfy all the conditions under this category, you will be eligible for full Student Support. To be eligible:

(a) you have the right of permanent residence in the UK; and

(b) you are ordinarily resident in England on the first day of the first academic year of your course; and

(c) you were ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands for three years before the first day of the first academic year of the course; and

(d) if your three-year residence in the UK and Islands was at any time mainly for the purpose of receiving full-time education, you must have been ordinarily resident in the UK or elsewhere in the EEA and/or Switzerland immediately prior to the three-year period of ordinary residence in the UK and Islands. It does not matter if you were in the EEA and/or Switzerland mainly in order to receive full-time education during this earlier period.

Point (b) would be the reason for asking you to prove you were in England on 1 September, but since you were under three years old when you left the UK, you wouldn't satisfy point (c).

You should be eligible for the tuition fee loan under point 2

2: EU nationals, and family

If you satisfy all the conditions under this category only, you are eligible only for a loan to pay your tuition fees. To be eligible:

(a) on the first day of the first academic year of the course, you must be:

a UK national; or a non-UK EU national who is in the UK as a self-sufficient person or as a student; the relevant family member of such a person above; and

(b) you must have been ordinarily resident in the EEA and/or Switzerland for three years before the first day of the first academic year of the course; and

(c) the main purpose for your residence in the EEA and/or Switzerland must not have been to receive full-time education during any part of the three year period.

stevemegson
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