3 year eligibility status

Hi, My son holds a UK passport, his mother was born and lived here for most of her life, but we have been living in Australia since 2001/2002 and we moved to the UK for work in 9/10/21 so he is 3.5 weeks short of the three years before the start of his course which starts 16/9/24. Is there any way to ask for some leniency to be eligible for finance support. Especially given our move to the UK was delayed with the complexities of moving during the pandemic. Seems a shame to waste a year for something that was out of his control, and it may encourage him to return to Australia to study as he is eligible there as a citizen. We obviously want to keep the family together if we can. We think the UK university will consider him a local student for fees, if this happens will his finance status be the same or are they treated separately? LAstly if finance is not available and he takes a gap year, what rules are there around leaving the country. Can he work in Europe at all? are there limits to the frequency and duration of trips if he returns to Australia or travel to Europe to make good use of the year he not allowed to study.
Any advice appreciated it's really hard to find a definitive answer or to talk to someone. Thanks

Hi there. Is your son a UK national, were they born in the UK or are they a dual national? Is the UK passport still valid at the moment? With regards to the gap year, we would need to determine eligibility for funding first of all. Finally, has the student applied already? Has a decision been made on their application? Thanks, David

Hi thanks for coming back quickly, yes he is a UK national and his passport is active, he has been living and schooling in the UK since Oct 21. He was born in Australia and has dual citizenship, his mother and grandmother were born and lived in the UK. We haven't put in the applications yet, as we don't want to apply as an international student, and it's not clear what happens if we apply and are accepted does this mean he will be considered an international student for life? I'm assuming if we apply, and then decide later not to accept it will be ok, but it's not clear in the system, and we are technically accepting offers in the system. He has conditional offers (min grade) for Nottingham Trent and Salford. The Nottingham offer doesn't mention his status, the Salford offer stipulated he would be considered and international student.

Thanks for that, sounds promising. We'll get an application started tonight. So we can start to collate evidence. What kind of evidence is required to prove that his Australia stay was temporary? We have no family in Australia (I am a New Zealander, and all of Kaths family still live in the UK). Kath had a pension here, I think she kept her bank account here also. Is this the kind of thing?

Thank you so much for confirming.
He could be considered a home student if he can provide evidence that his time in Australia was temporary. I would advise for him to make an application and state on it he's a UK National and send over his UK Passport.
Once we get his application and his residency information we will most likely ask for some evidence to be sent over to confirm his eligibility.
Thanks, Ross

Hi we did this, but it doesn't look promising they've asked for proof I had a temporary work contract in Australia which I didn't it was normal job role as we worked there for all my son's first 15 years, I wasn't a citizen though and was working on a temporary special Visa for NZ'ers.
He's decided rather than fight all the authorities for the sake of these 8 odd weeks, he'll just defer and start next year when there's no question of his eligibility. Taking a gap year. So my question now is what restrictions are there on how long he can be out of the country? It says 3 years continuously but temporary travel is allowed. I can't find anywhere what is considered temporary and I hate for him to reset the clock by accident. is there anything that would trigger absence to be considered permanent? He plans to travel to Australia (about 2 months) and Europe (on and off across the year) and find odd jobs to fund his way (barwork, fruitpicking, gofer work). Would anything like this be a problem?