Foreign students funding

[SuperSue77]

Can international students studying at UK unis get loans from UK govt for their funding? I had assumed they had to pay upfront, but something I have seen on social media suggests otherwise.

So even if the student in my hypothetical is considered domiciled in the UK, because they aren't considered ordinarily resident in the UK, they aren't eligible for home fees?

No. They have to be ‘ordinarily resident’. Living in another country for education does not count

Possible good news, @Muu9 :

The statement about the requirement to be ordinarily resident in the UK for three years is correct. However for a UG student this is about more than getting a degree overseas.

The cases I know of who were caught out by bad luck had complex family circumstances. It wouldn’t be proper for me to chase up the details of the decision without good reason. There were only two of them.

The decision will always be made in the context of family circumstances, the movements of the individual student, whether they have maintained personal ties to the UK, etc. Any student you are thinking of needs to contact each university individually.

Fingers crossed for them.

Children from families that have arrived under the Ukrainian scheme (which is not a settled or ILR status( get the Home fees status and are eligible to apply for a student loan and maintenance grant. The 3-year residency requirement is routunely waived by universities

So are refugees, even before receiving ILR.

The total of these numbers is very small but will be made much of by certain political factions.

No good the uni charging home fees if the SLC assesses as overseas and doesn’t give the loan - which happens more than you’d think.

So the small numbers mean that it's ok to enable this misuse of the student finance? This is a big business right now in case you are not aware: when families receive Ukrainian visas just for the child to obtain a home fees status and a student loan and effectively study for free in the UK. UK students will be paying their loans back over 40 years instead.

Hi, @titchy

Yes. They can be very cynical. I know our International Office was able to help at least one undergraduate refugee get his disputed tuition and maintenance loans. But it was a bitter fight.

The fee status is awarded by the university

Discretion is not unlimited to say the least. Universities literally cannot afford to be overly generous with Home classifications in the present fiscal climate.

Further to your previous post: about 250,000 Ukrainians are in the UK, most temporarily, as a result of the war. When one considers the indiscriminate violations of the Geneva Convention perpetrated by the Russians against civilians, it seems very doubtful that families choose to participate in the Ukrainian programmes chiefly with an eye on their DC HE prospects.

For perspective, Germany is hosting about 1.2 million Ukrainian refugees, nearly 5x what we are on a similar population base. Those economic powerhouse Poland and Czechia are each hosting substantially more Ukranians than we are, also.

And loans are awarded by SLC who will make their own assessment of entitlement.

Indeed. To think that there are Ukrainian families jumping for joy that their apartment has been bombed, this enabling them to leave their family and friends to go the UK temporarily so Aleksander can go to a UK uni is ridiculous.

There is a lot you are blissfully unaware of how these schemes are abused. And, using your example, one does not need to "have their house bombed" in order to buy your way into this visa and get all subsequent benefits. A huge number of applicants have been living in a safe country for years and are still eligible

Could you please clarify your last sentence, @MrsBelindaMay ? Which safe countries are you referring to?

Eurostat says that approximately 4.38M Ukrainians who are not EU citizens are currently sheltered in the EU. We have 5.7% of that number in the UK.

Yet Germany is the only EU country with a larger population than the UK, with France nipping at our heels. By rights we should have the second largest number of refugees. The Polish have beat us to that. Also the Czechs. Both by large measures!

Conspiracy theories killed by statistics.

‘Huge number - ‘huge’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. Any actual data you’d like to provide that demonstrates wide scale abuse?

I don't operate by statistics or conspiracy theories, I refer to my own experience over the past 4 years, first-hand. Up to you whether you want to pretend like this system abuse does not exist or that it is not extensive enough to pay attention to it.

A lot of foreign “students” come here on that visa and the crapest easiest course and are actually here to live but can’t get that visa. They then get married and have children and then claim they are settled so voila they get residency 🤷‍♀️

I don't think the Ukrainian refugees are the issue. I think it's as pp has said, spurious colleges enrolling students ( I think a large proportion from Romania according to the article) with no intention of them ever repaying or even attending classes. The issue is with these low value institutions being allowed to run University courses and being allowed to administer student loans.

But Romanian students would have to pay their own tuition fees and would not be eligible for a loan, so they would not factor under this issue.

What experience is that? Only sourced statements mean anything.

Surely you are not personally acquainted with a meaningful percentage of the 250,000 Ukrainians in the UK. Nor can you have been employed in Student Finance at a significant number of universities since the war began.

HMG has not published total figures for Ukrainians being supported by SFE since June 2023. The total then was 617. That is a small number for valuable humanitarian purposes, rather than a waste.

This isn’t a criticism at all, but we each have a writing style that vibes with our role in life. The vibes in your posts are not those of someone in a leadership position at SFE. No one else there has a need to know how many Ukrainians are being supported, or have applied.

The upshot is that a Freedom if Information Request to SFE is the only way you could have good data backing your claims. Please share the results.

You are being ridiculous and I certainly don't have to prove to you anything. By your own statistics, 617 students have been receiving student finance and very likely maintenance. That's very roughly £15,000 per year over 3 years at least. Multiply these figures and you will receive £27,765,000.

Nearly £28 million from UK funds so far which these students will never have to pay back if they choose to go home or anywhere else. More, if they then do Masters, also literally for free. As I said, up to you whether you personally dismiss it as a negligible figure that is not worthy of discussion - when our students will be paying their loans back over the course of their lifetime.

If they get a decent job in the UK they will be paying it back for as long as they are here. As they came here out of desperation, I suspect they will be here for a while longer.

Though £28M is a fortune to us, it is a drop in the ocean of money lost in the misconceived Student Loans Scheme.

Controversial statements do need to be backed with facts if they are to be taken seriously.

‘I don’t operate by statistics…’

Oh that’s a hilarious response to being asked to support your claim.

In other words, ‘I’m making shit up’.

Except that isn’t a visa route unless you have a spouse who earns enough to support both of you - cos visa = no recourse to public funds.

Unless you have a robust source to reveal?

Repaying what? Romanian students aren’t entitled to loans.