§ Mr. Tony Lloydasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what advice his Department issues to institutions of higher education about the classification of United Kingdom nationals who study abroad for more than three years as home students for fees purposes.
§ Mr. DunnA student who is a national of a member state of the European Community (including the United Kingdom) is eligible to have his fees for a course designated for mandatory awards purposes in the United Kingdom paid for him by the United Kingdom Government if he has been ordinarily resident in the area of the Community—other than wholly or mainly for the purposes of receiving full-time education—for the relevant three-year period before his course begins, provided he has not previously followed a course equivalent to a designated course, whether in the United Kingdom or elsewhere. A student who has pursued such a course but who meets the residence qualification is eligible to pay the home rate of fee for himself, as is a student who meets the residence qualification who wishes to attend a non-designated course.
The position of the student who has spent all or part of the relevant qualifying period outside the area of the Community, whether for study or for any other purpose, will depend either on whether he remained ordinarily resident in the area of the Community, for example as he might do if his absence abroad was purely temporary, or on whether he can be treated as being ordinarily resident in the Community because he was absent only because he, his spouse or his parent was temporarily employed outside the Community.
Guidance on the interpretation of the ordinary residence requirement has been given to institutions with the various regulations made under the Education (Fees & Awards) Act 1983, copies of which are in the Library.