Nationality and residency

You’ll be eligible for tuition fee and living cost support if all of the following apply:

• you normally live and work in England
• you’ve been living in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for 3 years before starting your course.

And you’re:

• a UK national or Irish Citizen, or
• settled under the EU Settlement Scheme, or
• granted indefinite leave to remain for other reasons

You can also apply for tuition fee and living cost support if you’ve been living in the UK, the EEA, Gibraltar or Switzerland for the past 3 years and are:

• the child of a Swiss national and you have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme
• an EEA or Swiss worker, or the family member of an EEA or Swiss Worker, and you have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme or you are an Irish Citizen
• a family member of a UK National - both you and your family member must have lived in the UK, EEA, Gibraltar or Switzerland for the past 3 years
• the child of a Turkish worker and you and your Turkish worker parent were in the UK by 31 December 2020, with your parent being granted extended Leave to Remain beyond that date

You can also apply for tuition fee and living cost support if you have one of the following Home Office statuses:

• Humanitarian protection or the family member of someone with this status
• Stateless status or the family member of someone with this status
• Refugee status or the family member of someone with this status
• Calais leave or the dependent child of someone with Calais leave
• Classed as ‘leave to remain’ under the section 67 of the Immigration act or the dependent child of someone with this status
• You, your parent or step-parent have been granted indefinite leave to enter or remain in the UK as a victim of domestic violence or abuse
• You, your parent or step-parent have been granted indefinite leave to remain as a person who has been a bereaved partner
• You or your family member have been granted leave to enter or remain under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) or the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS)
• You or your family member have been granted leave to enter or remain in the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme, the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme or the Ukraine Extension Scheme

You could also be eligible if you’ve been living in the UK for the past 3 years with long residence and are:

• under 18 on the first day of your course, you must have lived in the UK for at least 7 years
• 18 or over on the first day of your course, you must have lived in the UK for at least half your life or at least 20 years, whichever is less

To be eligible for support under the long residence category, you must have lived in the UK for three years before the first day of your course and have held a form of leave to remain in the UK issued by the Home Office during that time. You must also live in England on the first day of your course.

If you qualify for full support you should apply for student finance online. 

You may be eligible for tuition fee only funding if you've been living in the UK, the EEA, or overseas territories for the past 3 years and you're:

• an EU national or a family member of an EU national or a family member of a person or Northern Ireland and you have pre-settled or either status under the EU Settlement Scheme
• an EU national or a family member of an EU national who has resident status in Gibraltar
• an EEA or Swiss worker, a family member of an EEA or Swiss worker
• a child of a Swiss national or the child of a Turkish worker and you do not qualify for full support
• a person of Chagossian descent and have British citizenship

UK nationals and their family members who have resident status in Gibraltar and lived in the UK, Gibraltar, the EEA or Switzerland for the past three years can also apply for tuition fee only funding.

You may also be able to get tuition fee funding if you are a:

• family member of a UK national
• family member of a person with settled status in the UK
• family member of a Person of Northern Ireland
• family member of an Irish Citizen

You must have been living in the UK and Islands for the past 3 years and your family member is resident in the UK on the first day of the first academic year of the course.

You can also apply if you are a UK national, an Irish Citizen or you have settled status in the UK and you have been living in any of the following for the past 3 years:

• the UK, Islands and/or the specified British overseas territories
• the UK Islands and/or Ireland

You can also apply if you have Irish Citizenship and have been living in the any of the following for the past 3 years:

• the UK, the EEA, Switzerland or the Overseas Territories

If you only qualify for a Tuition Fee Loan you should apply for tuition fee only funding using a paper form.

Lived outside the UK, EU or EEA?

You can still get student finance if you’ve lived outside of the UK, EU or EEA during the 5 years before the start of your course if you had a temporary break in residency.

To prove that this was only a temporary break in residency you can send:

• your visa showing that your time abroad was temporary
• temporary work contracts for you or your parents
• evidence that you maintained a connection with the UK, for example bank statements showing your UK address, mortgage statements or utility bills

You might also be eligible if you're:

• a member of the UK armed forces serving overseas
• a spouse or civil partner living with a member of the UK Armed Forces serving overseas
• a child, step-child or adoptive child living with a member of the UK Armed Forces serving overseas
• a dependent parent living with either a child who is a member of The UK Armed Forces serving overseas or the child’s spouse or civil partner who is a member of the UK Armed Forces serving overseas

From 1 August 2018 students studying a distance learning course have also been able to get a Tuition Fee Loan if they’re:

• a member of the UK Armed Forces who usually lives in England but is serving in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland
• a relative living with a member of the UK Armed Forces serving in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland