UK national who was born in and has spent the greater part of their life in the UK
To be eligible to apply for the full-support package available to study a course of higher education in the UK, you must meet the following conditions:
- You were born in and have spent the greater part of your life in the UK; and
- Your parents or either of them have been ordinarily resident in the UK throughout the three years immediately before the relevant date and you are not an independent student (see below); or
- You have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least one year of the three year period immediately prior to the relevant date and no part of that residence was wholly or mainly for the purpose of receiving full-time education; and
- You are ordinarily resident in Scotland on the relevant date.
If you do not meet the final condition above, we may still be able to offer you support. Please contact us with details of your circumstances.
We will class you as an independent student if you meet at least one of the following conditions.
- You have reached 25 before the start of the academic year we are assessing you for.
- Your parents are no longer alive
- You were married, entered a civil partnership or are living with a partner before the start of the academic year we are assessing you for.
- You have a child dependant on you at the start of the academic year.
- You have supported yourself from earnings or benefits for any three years before the first day of the first academic year of your course. This can include periods when you were:
- receiving benefit as a person looking for employment;
- in training under a government training programme;
- receiving any pension, allowance or other benefit for maternity, sickness or injury;
- receiving an advanced research-level postgraduate award; or
- caring for a dependant who was under 18.
We cannot normally count periods when you were in full-time education towards the period you supported yourself.