Residence Conditions

These conditions can be complex, so if you’re unsure about your residency status, please contact us.

Note: This is general guidance and doesn’t guarantee funding. Your application is checked under the Education (Fees)(Scotland) Regulations 2022 and The Student Support (Scotland) Regulations 2022.

Who can apply

To be eligible for free tuition and funding, you must meet all three conditions:

• Be ordinarily resident in Scotland on the relevant date.
• Be ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands for the 3 years before the relevant date.
• Meet one of these:

• Be settled in the UK, as defined in Section 33(2A) of the Immigration Act (e.g., British citizen, Indefinite Leave to Remain).
• Have leave to enter or remain in the UK (not as a refugee), with Home Office confirmation, and your leave has not expired.
• Be the spouse, civil partner, or child of someone described above.

If you don’t meet these conditions, you may qualify under an exception (e.g. as a refugee, someone with humanitarian protection, or a migrant worker). See below for more exceptions to the general residence conditions.

What it means

Ordinary residence means you’ve made Scotland your home with the intention of living here permanently. If you’re in Scotland only to study and would normally live elsewhere, you are not ordinarily resident and must pay tuition fees.

If you live in England, Northern Ireland, or Wales, contact your local funding agency:

• Student Finance England
• Student Finance NI
• Student Finance Wales

The relevant date is when your residency is assessed:

• Further Education (FE): The course start date.
• Higher Education (HE): The first day of the first academic year (usually 1 August for autumn starts).

Residency conditions are the same for FE and HE, but the relevant date differs.

A settled person can live in the UK without immigration restrictions on their stay. This includes:

• British citizens.
• Republic of Ireland citizens.
• Individuals with the Right of Abode.
• Those with Indefinite Leave to Enter/Remain.

You may qualify for funding if you don’t meet the general residence conditions but fit an exception, such as:

• Specific conditions for UK nationals (saas-residence-uk-nationals-placeholder.html).
• Conditions for EU, Irish, EEA, Swiss, Gibraltar, or Turkish nationals post-Brexit (saas-residence-eu-nationals-placeholder.html).
• Conditions for non-EEA nationals (saas-residence-non-eea-placeholder.html).

Check SAAS guidance for full details (https://www.saas.gov.uk/guides/residence-conditions).

Glasgow Kelvin College is not a registered student visa sponsor and cannot accept students needing a visa to study in the UK. Dependants of student visa holders may qualify for funding if they meet the general residence conditions.