Eligibility at the beginning of a programme of study determines your eligibility for the duration of your studies (except for recognised refugees, or those who are granted Humanitarian Protection or who have Discretionary Leave, who can become eligible part way through their studies). This means that if you start your course while ineligible to receive support on residence grounds, you will continue to be ineligible for the rest of your course and for any other course of higher education you take immediately after that.
EU countries
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, United Kingdom.
EU overseas territories
Aruba, Faeroe Islands, French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Territories, Greenland Henderson, Mayotte, Netherlands Antilles (Bonaire, Curcao, Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten), the Territory of New Caledonia and Dependencies, St Pierre et Miquelon and Wallis and Futuna Islands.
EEA countries
The EEA countries are the 27 EU countries plus Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.
New countries that join the EU
We will consider students from new countries joining the EU for support towards their tuition fees from the date their home country joins. Nationals of the new member states (or their children) cannot apply for their tuition fees before their country joins the EU.
Any student who starts a course after the date their country joins the EU can apply to us for tuition fees for that academic year and any subsequent years.
Any student who started a course before their country joined the EU cannot apply for fees in the current academic year but can apply for fees in the following and subsequent year.
Migrant workers
If you have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands for less than three years immediately before the first day of the first academic year of your course (the relevant date), and you or a family member has migrant worker status, or have been self-employed in the UK, as well as paying your fees, you may be eligible for living-costs support in the form of a student loan, bursary and any supplementary grants that may apply to you. To qualify you or your family member must:
- have been ordinarily resident in the EEA or Switzerland during the three year qualifying period and be ordinarily resident in Scotland on or before the relevant date; and
- have been employed, self employed or actively seeking employment in the UK , though not necessarily continuously , since last entering; and
- If you are the student and you are employed or self employed there must be a link between your employment and your course in the UK ; and
- satisfy all the other conditions of the scheme.
Frontier workers
If you are an EU national who works or is self employed in Scotland but lives elsewhere in the EEA (except the UK) or Switzerland during the three year qualifying period and returns to where they normally live in the EEA or Switzerland on a daily basis or at least once a week, you or your family member may be eligible to apply for living-costs support in the form of a student loan, bursary and any supplementary grants that may apply if you or they want to study a course of higher education in the UK. If you think this applies to you contact us for advice.
The relevant date
The relevant date depends on when your course starts. The dates for session 2008-2009 are as follows.
- 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 .