Higher education
Higher education mostly means learning that takes place beyond the age of 18 at universities. However, it also includes other colleges and institutions that award academic degrees, professional qualifications and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) modules.
Home fees
Publicly funded educational institutions may charge two levels of fee: ‘home’ fees and ‘overseas’ fees. Full-time home students will be charged up to £9,250 a year – but fees for overseas students will be much higher than this (the average is £11,000 but they can be up to over £30,000 per year depending on the institution, the level of course and the type of course).
Student finance
Student finance (or student support) is the name given to financial support provided by the Government to some students in the UK. If an individual meets the eligibility criteria for claiming student support they can apply for a Tuition Fees Loan to cover tuition fees, and for a Maintenance Loan to cover living costs.
Funding rules and restrictions are complex – for more comprehensive information, please download the fact sheet available on this page.
Refugees who live in the UK are normally eligible for student finance.
Asylum seekers are not normally eligible.
Those with British citizenship, indefinite leave to remain and humanitarian protection are not eligible unless they have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands for the three years preceding the first day of the first academic year of the course
Those with other limited forms of leave, such as UASC leave, discretionary leave or limited leave to remain, may only be eligible if:
- they are ordinarily resident in England, AND
- they have 3 years lawful residence in the UK on the first day of the first term of the start of the academic year of the course; AND
- they are either:
- under 18 years old and have lived in the UK for the preceding 7 years, OR
- over 18 and have lived half their life in the UK.
No. Certain people have ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF), including those who have no regular status in the UK and those who have status subject to a condition of not accessing public funds. Public funds are defined in the Immigration Rules and include social housing, homelessness assistance and welfare benefits. The definition does not include education and those accessing higher education will not be in breach of a NRPF condition. An individual should check if they have a ‘no study’ condition if they are under ‘immigration bail’ as this can affect their ability to study.
The case of Kebede clarified the duties owed to care leavers by the local authority with regard to financial support for educational purposes. The court reiterated that there is a duty on a local authority to make a grant in relation to educational expenses as part of its leaving care support, to the extent that a former relevant child’s educational needs require it.
The court found that a ‘principal expense associated with education is the cost of tuition’ and so it followed that it was the local authority’s duty to give assistance by making a grant to enable care leavers to meet this expense.
There were provisions in the Immigration Act 2016 that sought to reduce the rights of care leavers and makes specific provision curtailing local authorities’ duties around meeting tuition fees for those with limited leave to remain and no leave to remain. This part of the Immigration Act 2016 has never come into force and is unlikely to in the future.
