Dear Mr [Fee Status Man],
I am confused as to your decision with regards to my fee status, if only because other a) other universities, namely Warwick, do not agree with your assessment, and b) according to its website,
http://www.ukcosa.org.uk/, the UK Council for International Student Affairs does not agree either. If I permit myself to cite from one section of their site:
http://www.ukcosa.org.uk/student/fees_student_support.phpCan I become a 'home' fee payer?
It is possible to become a 'home' fee payer, even if you started your course as an 'overseas' fee payer. In all cases (see list below), you must meet any residence conditions at the start of your course. You might be able to change fee status if, for example, you become:
* an EU national or the family member of an EU national
* an EEA or Swiss migrant worker or the family member of such a person
* a refugee or person with Humanitarian Protection or Discretionary Leave
* the child of a Swiss national
* the child of a Turkish worker in the UK
None of your criteria appear to recognise any of the exceptions mentioned here. If I then look at the criteria for which the child of a Swiss national may be considered for home fees according to this website, here:
http://www.ukcosa.org.uk/student/info_sheets/tuition_fees_ewni.php under category 7, you will see that the criteria presented here are as follows:
CATEGORY 7:
Child of a Swiss National
In order to qualify for 'home' fees under this category, you must meet the following criteria:
(a) on the 'first day of an academic year of your course', you must be the child [see Box 7] of a Swiss national
AND
(b) youmust be ordinarily resident [see Box 3] in the UK on the 'first day of the first academic year of the course' [see Box 2]
AND
(c) you must have been ordinarily resident in the EEA [see Box 5] and/or Switzerland and/or the overseas territories [see Box 6] for the three years before the 'first day of the first academic year of the course' [see Box 2]
AND
(d) if the main purpose for your residence in (c) above, was wholly or mainly for the purpose of receiving full-time education, you must have been ordinarily resident in the EEA and/or Switzerland immediately before that three-year period.
NOTES:
* there is no requirement that your Swiss parent is, or has been, economically active in the UK
* if you become the child of a Swiss national part-way through your course, you might become entitled to pay 'home' fees – you can seek advice on this from an adviser at your institution, your Students' Union or telephone UKCISA's Students' Advice Line.
As explicitly stated in the completed sheet (I have sent a more complete sheet by mail, assuming you are referring to the response I sent by electronic mail, but this is explicitly stated in the electronic mail too) I fulfill ALL the criteria stated here. I am not entirely certain why the criteria of Durham would be any different from that of the UK Council for International Student Affairs. I shall be calling the applications department tomorrow (unless I get a response earlier) in the hope of being enlightened as to why the criteria differ between the university of Warwick and the UK Council for International Student Affairs and the University of Durham, or, if this has, as I suspect, been a simple misunderstanding, that my fee status can be reassessed.
[Rite]
[UCAS ID]
Course: Physics (4 year)