UK expat in Spain applying to Scottish Universities

[Jobforlife]

My DD has set her heart on going to Edinburgh or Glasgow University next September. She´s already had an offer from Glasgow, and has been categorised as a ´Home/EU´student by both Glasgow and Edinburgh, so we should qualify for free fees even though we originally lived in London (we´ve been abroad in the EU for over 3 years)
We have been told that we will get the fees paid by SAAS, and will be able to apply for the maintenance grant/loan from Student Finance England. Can anyone confirm whether this is true? I´m yet to actually meet or hear from anyone who has done this...

Sorry, but I don't think you can. Unless you are something like Armed Forces, if you have not been resident in England for the qualifying period, you cannot receive this loan.

Or if you do it'll mean your 'official' domicile is England, and so tuition fees kick in.

Thanks for the swift reply AuntieStella and yes, that´s what I would have thought… And in fact, we will probably still go for Scotland as the free fees are such a massive bonus, but it will mean we will have to find other ways of supporting her (and she will have to work through University).
It´s just that at Glasgow University Open Day we heard from both a representative of the SAAS and a member of the staff at the Uni who both indicated that we would be eligible for funding from Student Finance England too…. I will have to ring them, but I´ve had dealings with them previously with my son, and know from bitter experience that the people you speak to on the phone are clueless and often give out the wrong information!

Hi, you can get saas but I don't think you can get the loan. We got the saas. Just pm me if you like.

OP. Do you think it's fair that DD should get subsidised for uni by the taxpayers of a country where you've chosen not to pay tax for the last several years? Because I don't.

There's barely enough money for those of us who do pay tax here.

You made your choice a few years ago. You can't have the best of both worlds.

tywysogesgymraeg, I don´t want to go into personal details obviously, but as a matter of fact, we do pay tax in the UK and have done since we left the UK to live abroad.
There is an opportunity that EU students have to study in Scotland for free, that isn´t available to ´Rest of UK´students, and I´m the first to agree that this is unfair, but we are eligible to benefit from it and therefore we are pursuing it as a viable option.

Oh, and I forgot to add that having paid that tax in the UK, we are unable to access benefits such as education, child benefit or healthcare. That´s a choice we made when we made a move abroad, and we do not moan about it.
Secondly, I was asking whether we could possibly access the student loan for maintenance. This is a repayable and doesn´t represent a burden on the state.

Tywy the question of fairness based on tax contributions is a nonstarter. EU citizens are free to access education, jobs etc in the UK in exactly the same way as UK residents can access same in the EU.
By your reasoning you presumably wouldn't let your dc study in France, or go to a Spanish hospital if they were ill on holiday.

It's a reciprocal arrangement available to all and thus entirely fair.

I can see that having lived in the EU for more than 3 years she would be eligible for saas funding for fees.

But it sounds very unliklely that she would also be eligible for a loan from Studen Finance England. Does their website say anything? I guess there could be a loophole that meant she was eligible for both, but they ususally set these things up so you can't be in more than one category which will actually give/lend you any funding.

We are making plans to be able to help her with her living costs as I do really think that we won´t be able to access any funding from Student Finance England. It was just a question as we had been given advice that said we might…
She could choose to go to Uni in Spain, or Germany (free) or Denmark (virtually free). That´s a choice open to UK students as well. I don´t think many choose to look abroad though.

tywysogesgymraeg

That's a nasty comment. It is not the OP's 'fault, it is a quirk of Scottish devolution. The OP's daughter could also get an education in Sweden without paying any fees, as can any EU citizen.

OP
I think you have been given the wrong information re finance England, your dd should be able to access either the Spanish version of student finance or the Scottish one, but not England.

Whatever you do get everything in writing. I speak from experience.

Yes, just looked at this It seems pretty clear.

"Tuition Fee Loan
UK or EU full-time or part-time students can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan.

Maintenance Loan for living costs
You must be a full-time UK student. Part-time students, EU students and students aged 60 and over can’t apply."

So if you are considered an EU students you can only get a loan for fees. Thus no fees equals no loan.

I don't get tywysogesgymraeg's point. All qualifying EU students can get tuition fee loans. DD is considering studying elsewhere in the EU and she will pay the same fees as citizens of that country. There are issues and anomalies, including problems chasing repayments, however I think most students would agree that being part of a diverse and international student body is a positive.

The thing is, she has actually selected a couple of Uk universities on the UCAS application, and if she were to select one of those, Student Finance England would treat her as a UK student and she could apply for the tuition fee loan and the maintenance loan/grant. But if she selects a Scottish University, do they then categorise her as EU?

Actually, she's just got back from visiting Trinity College Dublin and it looks like that could be in the mix now!

Well SFE SHOULD categorise her as EU, and once she applies you'd know for sure as they'd turn her down for fee and maintenance loans.

However it is entirely possible they'd treat her as Home (ie English) and award her the maintenance loan, for study either in England or Scotland. It is also possible for Scottish universities to classify her as EU and thus not charge her any fees....

Basically SFE and SAAS and universities can, and often do, make different decisions on an applicant's fee status.....

Well not often, but sometimes!

Blimey! So anything is possible? The Scottish Unis have already categorised her as Home/EU so we can apply to the SAAS on that basis. I guess we just then make an application to SFE and see what happens.
What I'm guessing is that we will be refused as I've yet to find anyone who has done this and successfully got funding from 2 separate bodies.
I wonder what would happen if we didn't apply to SAAS to pay the fees but just applied to SFE?

You won't pay fees if she's EU - Scotland doesn't (yet) charge fees to Scottish or EU students. Might be worth not applying to SAAS at all, just SFE for a maintenance loan. You never know!

No, if she is going to go to a Scottish uni she will need to apply to SAAS to get her fees paid, as do Scottish students. Have you looked at the SAAS web-site?

Yes I've looked at the SAAS website and it seems clear that we can apply for the fees to be paid. At the Glasgow University Open Day we spoke to a representative from the SAAS specifically about our circumstances, and it was he who advised us that we could also make an application to SFE for a maintenance loan/grant. We were then chatting to a member of the Uni staff who dealt with Erasmus and she seemed to agree...
However, a representative from the SAAS at the Edinburgh University open day told us we wouldn't qualify as Home/EU status (which we have been- by both Universities).
so, conflicting information. I guess we will just have to go through the process and see .

Jobforlife, I am in the same situation as you, they have asked for clarifying information on our nationality/finances. DD and I are UK nationals but resident within the wider EU. Would you mind sharing what you had to do to get classified as Home/EU student with Edingburgh/Glasgow? Please send by pm if you prefer.

I have looked at the rules and regulations and cannot work it out.

Regarding how the two are reconciled, if your DD goes to a Scottish university, they will class her as "Home/EU" because of residence in EU, and so no loan needed for fees. If she goes to an English univesity, they will class her as a "UK" student because of nationality. I do know people who have gone from where we live to England hand have got the loan for both tuition and maintenance. They usually have gone a little early, established residence/bank account, etc with a family member and applied for the loan from there.

I do agree the situation is very unclear, which makes it hard to make decisions.

bold: jobforlife, I'm interested in my children following a similar path to yours, I am also Ex pat in Spain. First of all, as a lot of time has past, how did you get on!?
If you replied to any of the others on this thread with information on how you proceeded with getting Scottish fees paid and receiving maintenance grant from England, please could you forward it to me.
Thanks in advance.

mattbf01, there was another thread on this, and the conclusion was that as a Brit resident in the EU, you have a choice of two options if you go to a Scottish university:

EITHER:

your DC is classified by the Scottish university as "Home/EU", and gets to pay "Home" (ie, Scottish) fees, and applies to SAAS. In this case there is no maintenance loan.

OR:

your DC is classified as "Settled in the UK" by SFE, and gets to pay RUK fees at the Scottish university, and is entitled to both a tuition fee loan AND a maintenance loan.

If you apply to SAAS, then you cannot apply to SFE to get the maintenance loan. So the choice for you as a parent is "no fees and no maintenance loan" OR "RUK fees covered by tuition fee loan, and maintenance loan".

If I had that choice, I would take the "Home/EU" fees for Scottish university and do without the maintenance loan.

You can apply to a Scottish university and get finance from Student Finance England for Tuition Fee loan and Maintenance loan.

Please remember there is a quota on Home/EU students for Scottish universities so your DD is less likely to get a place.

Also Scottish universities usually do a four year course - so an extra year to fund with no academic benefit if you don't get maintenance loan.

Decide on what fee status you want and then chose universities is best advice.

DD applied to a mix of Scottish and English universities but decided to go to SFE for both grants (she's lived in EU for ten years)