Do you meet the country of residence conditions to get funding?
To be eligible to apply for some funding you must meet certain residence conditions. If you have not lived outside the UK, apart from temporary or occasional absences, you are likely to meet the residence conditions. However, if you are not sure whether you meet the residence conditions we would advise you to contact your local college (for Further Education courses) or the Student Awards Agency for Scotland ( SAAS) (for Higher Education courses).
Generally, the residence requirements are as follows:
(i) You must be ordinarily resident in Scotland on the first day of the first academic year of the course.
In Further Education, this will be the start date of your course.
In Higher Education, you must be ordinarily resident on the following dates:
- 1 August 2008 for courses that start between 1 August 2008 and 31 December 2008.
- 1 January 2009 for courses that start between 1 January 2009 and 31 March 2009.
- 1 April 2009 for courses that start between 1 April 2009 and 30 June 2009.
- 1 July 2009 for courses that start between 1 July 2009 and 31 July 2009.
(ii)UK nationals must also have been ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for the three-year period immediately before the start of the course.
There are different rules for asylum seekers, refugees, migrant workers and EU nationals. Please refer to the Scottish Government booklet 'Helping you meet the costs of learning: Asylum seekers, refugees, migrant workers and EU nationals'
What does 'ordinarily resident' in Scotland mean?
The courts have defined 'ordinary residence' as 'habitual and normal residence in one place'. It basically means that you, your parents, or your husband/wife/civil partner live in a country year after year by choice throughout a set period. This allows for temporary or occasional absences such as holidays or business trips and may cover you if you or someone in your family were temporarily employed abroad.
In most cases you may not be treated as 'ordinarily resident' in Scotland if your main purpose in coming here is to study and you would normally be living somewhere else.