How is my fee status assessed?

UK universities are legally required to assess your tuition fee status based on three main criteria:

  • Your nationality
  • Your UK immigration status
  • Your country of ordinary residence during the three years immediately before your course start date

Eligibility for Home fee status is determined by regulations issued by the English Government’s Department for Education - see Legislation. Universities must follow these regulations when assessing both applicants and current students.

The terminology in fee status assessments may sometimes differ from everyday usage, so the more frequently-used terms are explained at the bottom of this web page page and in the Fee Status Glossary. Further definitions can be found in the Find your fee status guidance provided by the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA). Note that references to 'students'  includes applicants and offer holders, and references to 'the University' include its Colleges. 

Key points

  • Holding a British or an EU passport does not automatically qualify you for Home fee status or student finance support. Similarly, holding a non-British or EU passport doesn't automatically mean that you are ineligible.
  • The Fee Status Glossary lists some documents that help determine your country of ordinary residence. If you are dependent upon your partner/spouse/parents, household bills may be in their name - in which case, please provide evidence of your relationship to the bill payer so we can confirm the documents also verify your residency.
  • If your fee status cannot be determined from your original application, your College or the central University will send you a Fee Status Assessment Questionnaire to complete while they are considering whether to offer you a place. You'll need to complete and return this questionnaire with the requested documents for an accurate assessment.  
  • If your UK immigration status has changed during the three years before your course start date, you must provide copies of all immigration documents covering this period. This may include a share code, multiple passport vignettes, residence permits, and/or a naturalisation certificate. If you are missing a document, please provide the corresponding Home Office grant of leave letter. We'll let you know if further documents are required.
  • If you have lived temporarily in another country due to your or a family member's overseas employment, you must provide copies of all employment contracts (including secondment agreements and contract extension letters) covering the three years prior to your course start date.
  • If you live 'wholly or mainly in a country for the purpose of receiving full-time education’, you will not normally be considered ordinarily resident there, as the fee status regulations stipulate that periods of residence for the purpose of education should be disregarded when determining ordinary residence
  • Undergraduate applicants are usually considered ordinarily resident in the same country as their parent(s), even if studying elsewhere. Exceptions may apply if you are financially independent or estranged from your parent(s) - you should inform the fee assessors if this applies to you.  
  • Short periods of temporary absence from your normal country of residence would be disregarded when assessing ordinary residence, provided the absence was clearly temporary(see Temporary Absence in the Glossary). Examples include a gap year, a summer internship, attending school in a different country, or temporary relocation due to a parent's fixed-term overseas assignment.
  • If your initial fee status assessment seems incorrect, don't worry. Admissions teams can update your fee status if you can provide sufficient evidence to support your claim. 
  • Keep all relevant documents handy, as you may also need them for a student finance application.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Fee status is determined by a combination of three factors: a student's UK immigration status, their nationality and their countries of ordinary residence (see below). Consequently not all British passport holders are eligible for Home fee status. Equally, a number of non-UK citizens will be eligible for Home fees. 

'Home' doesn't necessarily refer to someone's nationality or the country they currently live in. It is shorthand for 'entitled to the regulated (capped) tuition fee', which is set by the UK government and is currently £9,250 per year. There is a number of different categories of student who are eligible for Home fees. An offer holder only needs to meet the requirements for one category in order to pay the Home fee for their course.

Note that the regulated fee only applies to undergraduate courses; postgraduate fees are set by the institution providing the course. Tuition fees for undergraduate and postgraduate students with Home fee status are significantly lower than the fees paid by international students. There is one exception to this rule: undergraduates with Home fee status who are classified as ELQ students (i.e. they already hold an Equivalent Level Qualification to the one they're planning to take) will pay an ELQ fee that is higher than the regulated fee. However, the Home ELQ fee is still significantly lower than the fee paid by international students.

Institutions are able to set the course fee rates for all students (undergraduate and postgraduate) who are assessed as 'Overseas' students. The Overseas course fee is not regulated by the UK Government, and therefore there is no cap on the amount that institutions can charge students with this fee status. Overseas undergraduate students at the University of Cambridge are also required to pay a College fee.

Most students holding pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme are eligible to pay Home fees. However, the residency requirements for pre- and settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme are different to those required for Home fee status. Consequently a small number of students holding pre-settled status will be liable for Overseas tuition fees. 

This covers medical or work trips, holidays and gap years to a country/countries outside the one in which the student normally lives. It also includes longer periods of residence in another country that were demonstrably fixed-term e.g. for education, temporary employment contracts (by the student, parent, or spouse).

An offer holder or student who is claiming that they were temporarily resident in a different country must be able to share official documents as evidence of this, e.g. internship letter, exchange scheme offer letter, or copies of all employment contracts (including extension letters). Without evidence to the contrary, the University is likely to consider the absence to have been permanent. When assessing a student's ordinary residence, the University will look at all the information and documents provided by the student to determine where they would normally have been resident during that time.

There is no hard and fast rule that stipulates the maximum length of time that can be considered as temporary absence, so fee assessors will also look for evidence of the original intention and reason(s) for the period of absence on a case-by-case basis.

It is worth reiterating that periods of temporary absence do not break the continuity of ordinary residence, and are therefore discounted when calculating duration of ordinary residence in a particular country or area.

Although degree courses at the University of Cambridge begin several days or weeks later, the official 'course start dates' as stated by the Fee Regulations are:

  • 1 September for undergraduate courses
  • 1 September, 1 January or 1 April for postgraduate courses.

There is an important exception to this relating to students who obtain ILR, British or Irish citizenship before their course starts - see Can my fee status change?  

This is covered under the 'Integrated courses' section of the page titled Can my fee status change?.