What have you done about international rate university fees?

[LatetoTW8]

Family moved to Sydney a few years ago. Kids are finishing school, with daughter first in 2 years time. Overall, everyone likes the UK better and plan to go back. Everyone is a British citizen.

The problem is univeristy. To be considered a home student, you are supposed to have been resident in the UK the previous 3 years, otherwise you need to pay international student fees, which are a lot. Really a lot, about £35,000 per year.

Just wanted to get ideas about what anyone in a similar situation has done?

We are just paying the fees as we figure it will be easier for dc to get the places they want.
But we know others who have managed not to. Do you still have a property in the UK, fly back regularly, are you on an assignment all of these things can help to get the university to identify as a home student. Are you still making NI contributions.

I have a friend in this situation, they moved back to Uk and their ds took a gap year to earn money which then helped pay the international fees ( a bit!) in year1 of uni.

His residency met the criteria for being a Home student in time for his second year at uni so he applied to the uni which confirmed he could be reclassified as a Home student in year 2 and 3 of his degree so his parents only suffered one year of the higher international fees.

Both of us are still paying NI in the UK. I don't see how you can say you are resident in the UK though, when the university will want to see high school results and those are going to be Australian high school results?

Does the international rate apply to all the years of university? Or once if they took a gap year in England, would you only pay the international rate for 2 years and by the 3rd year of university you have been in England 3 years?

PS to above - still paying NI and still have property in London.

In the old days this was why so many expat children did at least O’s and A’s at boarding school in the UK. They usually spent Easter holidays in the UK to preserve their footing here. I don’t think that works anymore but talk to other expats.

Following for info for my niece in the EU, the info available is so confusing.

Does anyone know are access to student finance and home fees assessed seperately or if you are entitled to one, the other is automatic? And are there different rules in England, Wales, Scotland and NI was my other thought?

Is the concept of being 'ordinarily resident' - ie. the whole family moves back and re settles in the UK - for less than 3 years of any use/ relevance?

Our friends that got resident stated they temporarily abroad for work, travelled home regularly and maintained their home in the UK. They had flights receipts for travel during breaks and went back regularly.
We were told that some universities are much happier to accept students as residents than others and you need to talk to admissions departments, also the better the student the more likely the university was to sign of the residency. As I said we just accepted our fate and are paying the fees as we now have residency in the USA and honestly tuition fees here are even more expensive than overseas UK ones.

Hi, OP -

I am a former admissions tutor. Each university makes its own judgment about the Home vs Overseas student classification. Judgments must conform to the guidance from the Department for Education but there is room for discretion.

The fact that you still pay NI is significant, but the degree will vary. Any property ownership will count in your favour. Other components of your personal and financial set up, and DCs’, will also matter.

And yes, status can also change part way through the degree.

Be aware that Student Finance England is obliged to follow a rigid scheme in making the Home/Overseas classification, and regardless of the university’s decision, only those classified as Home students by SFE can access the student loan system (in England).

These are awful times for British HE. Will that affect classifications? Sadly I wouldn’t bet against it, although the silver lining is that all but the most elite universities will often relax admissions standards a bit for Overseas students.

This is such a quagmire that it might be very cost effective to engage with an admissions consultant, and I almost never say that. Best wishes

When is she due to go? If she was a UK citizen, domiciled in the EU at the time of us leaving the EU, she has protected rights to be assessed as a home fee payer until 2028.

@LatetoTW8 , there is a Facebook group called WIWIKAU - what I wish I knew about uni - it has 80k members and is very active. People ask this question all the time - the fact the decision is made at the discretion of the uni complicates it plus for some courses it's easier to access a place as an international student than home student. They won't be an easy answer.

Came back early. Two years sixth form and one year work experience.

My school friend settled with her British husband in Germany where her children were born but she sent all 3 boys back to the UK for boarding school not sure what age - may be GCSE or may be A levels and then university . I am not sure if that solved the fees issue.

Thank you for this, they moved 3 months before and due to start Uni 2029 at the earliest unfortunately!

There hasn't yet been a fees issue for UK in EU students. UK in EU are still classed as home fees payers until 2028 (ie for a September 2027 start date of course fees will remain at home rate)

Admissions consultants' skill set is usually about matching students to courses and they aren't IME very helpful when it comes to this very difficult issue. IME universities frequently mis-classify students initially as overseas but are reasonably good about changing their minds once presented with the evidence - this sometimes can be as easy as a quick email and sometimes involves filling in many pages of documentation but I have not known it to fail if students do indeed fall within the (actually quite generous) criteria for UK in EU

We are Brits but have lived overseas since our kids were babies/ toddlers. They both go to a Uk university this Sept and w'ell be paying international fees. As we should.

Either pay the international fees, or return for 3 years and pay home student fees. Not complicated.

Or go to an Australian university and pay whatever fees are required.

I’ma uni guidance counsellor in the EU at an international school. We recently had a meeting with a lot of the UK unis and the advice on fee classification was that each university deals with it their own way (within the legal framework) and if you are initially classed as international fees, you can push back and try to convince them otherwise. Brits resident in the eu at the time of the withdrawal agreement qualify for home fees but unis may well initial assess them as international in the first instance, so push back. For applicants who have been resident elsewhere eg Australia, it’s not as straightforward. Fees status rests on residence in the UK not nationality.

bloody Brexit. We used to send 30-40 good European students a year to the UK, now it’s 5-6 🤷‍♀️.

What annoys me most though is that international students get lower offers because they are paying higher fees 🙄. We’ve had offers with the wording that students have been assessed as international fees, and if they push back and qualify for home fees the offer will be withdrawn and a higher offer made instead 🙄.

What answers are you expecting? Move back at the appropriate time or pay the fees.

To be fair to OP it isn’t that simple as this thread has shown.