Free tuition fees in Scotland

Hi, I want to study medicine in Scotland was born and raised in England and know that most posts online state to have lived in Scotland for 3 years prior to starting university, since medicine is a 5 year degree I was wondering if you would pay the normal £9,250 a year for 3 years, and then be eligible for free tuition the last 2 years of the course

On the SAAS website it states for Scottish funding
To qualify for all three of the free tuition fees, Student Loan and bursaries, you must meet the SAAS eligibility criteria:
You have lived in the UK for at least three years prior to the start of your course
You are 'ordinarily' resident in Scotland on a specified date (typically 1st August for courses starting in the autumn term)
You have 'settled status' in the UK on the relevant date.

I would qualify for the 1st and 3rd criteria, but after 3 years at uni in scotland would ordinarily be a resident and I know for Student Finance England you have to reapply for funding to see if you are eligible each year of your course, not sure if you have to reapply each year in Scotland also

Thanks for any help on this question

Reply 1

S0CKPUPPET

You have to be resident - not just there for education , like boarding school or university.
Otherwise every overseas student in the UK would be eligible for UK state support after 3 years studying here.
Why don't you move to Scotland now and get a job a then you would be eligible in 3 years time?

Reply 2

kaipahead

The law refers to before the course start date not each year of course. In other words you need to ordinarily resident in Scotland for purposes of not education on relevant date which is usually 1 august before September start. This means that your fee status is fixed at start of course and does not change for the whole course. Of course every student ( without visa restrictions) becomes ordinarily resident in Scotland after they have started their course but that is irrelevant as tuition fee is decided at point of application. So as a UK nat living in England you can move to Scotland for say a year and establish ordinary residence ( rent, have job, no full time study) and then apply. You don't actually need 3 years if you were ordinarily resident in England