Scottish uni for free after gap year?

[dylexicdementor11]

A friend’s DD is planning on taking a gap year before uni and spending it in the EU country her father is from. She is a dual national and lives in England at the moment.
She plans on applying to a Scottish university after establishing residency in the EU country. She’ll apply to a uni that treats EU students as home students. This seems like a brilliant way to avoid paying extortionate fees. Are there any downsides we aren’t seeing? Thanks!

It’s not just about having dual nationality passports you have to have exercised your rights prior to the agreement.

My understanding is that even if the student in question went to live in the EU for 3 years she wouldn’t be eligible.

This is correct.

They have to have settled status in the UK and to be resident in Scotland to be treated as a home student. If they are resident elsewhere in the UK they pay £9,250pa. Otherwise EU students pay international fees which are very high, plus they don't qualify for student loans in the UK.

Just to clarify - Irish students don't pay international fees. They pay the same as locals except in Scotland where they have to pay fees at the same rate as English fees.

Why Scotland and not Ireland where I thought uni was free for EU citizens?

It's not free in Ireland. There is a student contribution of €3000, although it's been reduced to €2000 for the past few years. I'm not sure will they continue that going forward as it's something they have put in the budget each year rather than an actual reduction iykwim.

An EU student and any non-'home' student studying at a university in Scotland is required to pay international fees. The is far from the freebie your friend anticipates.

International fees are considerable. For example, the international fees at the University of Edinburgh are £28,000 per year for humanities, £36,800 per year for engineering and science, and £51,961 for medicine.

In comparison, an EU student studying at a university in Ireland has free fees but must pay a student contribution. This is nominally €3000 per year but was reduced to €2000 in recent years.

The SAAS funding wouldn’t cover her as she hasn’t been resident in scotland for three years. it doesn’t matter if the uni treats EU students as home students or not- the funding authority does not.

@dylexicdementor11 There are exceptions if the student has had to live outside of the country due to parental work. Same for spouses. There's a long-ish form to complete "fee status questionnaire" which usually is pretty straight forward. If you have a home in Scotland, are only out of the country due to parental work, come back frequently etc you can in some instances be granted "home" fee status. It will depend on the university and how lenient they are feeling.