[marcusfox]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-17900220

A Scottish government spokesman has confirmed that sixth form pupils in the UK who hold Irish passports qualify for free university tuition in Scotland.

Fees are rising to a maximum of £9000 across the UK but in Scotland, pupils who have lived there for at least three years do not have to pay fees.

[tradingmyheartforyours]

It will attract more people to get Irish passports I guess. If I had been in the position that my firm choice four years ago had been in Scotland then I would have got a new passport in a heartbeat. I know quite a few people who have had an Irish passport due to the fact it was cheaper, too less time to process and was safer to travel in certain countries.

Just to clarify: you have to have Irish parentage or dual nationality to qualify for the passport.

Op, what is your take on the matter?

[Cyanohydrin]

Haha, about 10% of England is eligible for an Irish passport, and 14,000,000 people in the UK have some form of Irish ancestry.

[bytail]

Really makes me wish I had applied to Edinburgh

[marcusfox]

(Original post by tradingmyheartforyours)
It will attract more people to get Irish passports I guess. If I had been in the position that my firm choice four years ago had been in Scotland then I would have got a new passport in a heartbeat. I know quite a few people who have had an Irish passport due to the fact it was cheaper, too less time to process and was safer to travel in certain countries.

Just to clarify: you have to have Irish parentage or dual nationality to qualify for the passport.

Op, what is your take on the matter?

To qualify for Irish passport, you need to be:

* born in Ireland before 2005, or born in Ireland after 2005 if your parents have had legal residency for (I think five) years - this was changed because of the Chen case;

* parent or grandparent born in Ireland, or great grandparents born in Ireland if your parent/grandparent had undergone foreign birth registration before you were born;

* married to an Irish citizen and undergone citizenship application.

There may be other ways, but these are the most common.

Where I use Ireland above, I mean the island of Ireland, which includes Northern Ireland.

[Nightstar-27]

*looks at Irish Passport* Why didn't I know about this last year when I was applying to university D:?

[Targaryan]

Gotta love being Northern Irish... I'm going to get the forms to apply for an Irish passport today!

[bishbash72]

I hate Alex Salmond

[Beebumble]

I may be wrong but doesn't this only apply to those living Ireland. i.e If you live in England with an Irish passport you still have to pay fees?

[Cyanohydrin]

(Original post by Callum828)
I hate Alex Salmond

Why anyway? If you want free fees in England then stop electing the tories!

[Snagprophet]

But why? Surely it's about where you're a resident of. Ah well, let's see Scotland support itself when it finally buggers off.

[marcusfox]

(Original post by Beebumble)
I may be wrong but doesn't this only apply to those living Ireland. i.e If you live in England with an Irish passport you still have to pay fees?

If you didn't read the article, you could at least have read my OP.

A Scottish government spokesman has confirmed that sixth form pupils in the UK who hold Irish passports qualify for free university tuition in Scotland.

[FinalMH]

This is going to be for 2 years anyways. Then the free education Scotland is gone.

[quavers]

Scotland's education policy towards England and Wales is a joke.

Live in England? Pay £9000.
Live in Spain of Greece? Go there for free.



They can get their independence in 2014, good riddance I say.

[Snagprophet]

(Original post by quavers)
Scotland's education policy towards England and Wales is a joke.

Live in England? Pay £9000.
Live in Spain of Greece? Go there for free.

I understand the principles of different state education, i.e. one state charging and another spent entirely on public money, but why would it matter if English students could go? It's not exactly being swamped by foreigners is it, and there's a lot more people in the EU than in England.

Now they've completely contradicted themselves in the whole 'residence' thing just because a few people have Irish passports and probably never lived in RoI for more than a few years.

[Beebumble]

(Original post by marcusfox)
If you didn't read the article, you could at least have read my OP.

I'll think you'll find I did read the article which has caused the confusion:

Irish passport holders in Northern Ireland count as EU students

There is a degree of confusion about how widely this measure applies.

[quavers]

(Original post by Snagprophet)
I understand the principles of different state education, i.e. one state charging and another spent entirely on public money, but why would it matter if English students could go? It's not exactly being swamped by foreigners is it, and there's a lot more people in the EU than in England.

Now they've completely contradicted themselves in the whole 'residence' thing just because a few people have Irish passports and probably never lived in RoI for more than a few years.

Why don't they provide free education for all the UK (inc England and Wales) in addition to the EU, rather than picking and choosing?

[Cyanohydrin]

(Original post by quavers)
Scotland's education policy towards England and Wales is a joke.

Live in England? Pay £9000.
Live in Spain of Greece? Go there for free.



They can get their independence in 2014, good riddance I say.

The majority of the English electorate (nationwide, obviously I feel sorry for the English people in places like Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester and so on who did not vote for them) voted for the Conservative Party. If you feel do aggrieved by the fees situation then start voting for parties that want free fees, and stop blaming Scottish people!

[marcusfox]

(Original post by Cyanohydrin)

Why anyway? If you want free fees in England then stop electing the tories!

That's a narrow-minded viewpoint. We all know that fee-free education in England ended under the Labour party, in fact, almost immediately after they were elected.

It's also incredibly naiive to think that had Labour been elected in the last term instead of the Coalition, they wouldn't have found savings for their own version of the cuts in the student finance budget.

[Barden]

(Original post by Beebumble)
I may be wrong but doesn't this only apply to those living Ireland. i.e If you live in England with an Irish passport you still have to pay fees?

Nah it applies to all Irish passport holders I think. It's just very salient for prospective students in N.I. because all residents in N.I. can apply for Irish citizenship... or something? I think?

So effectively, Scottish unis are (de facto) free for N.I. students too.