General residence conditions for funding

Relevant date

The relevant date for further education courses is the start date of the course. This is the date the course starts rather than the date you start the course. For session 2023/24 this is 21st August 2023.

The relevant date for higher education courses is the first day of the first academic year of a course. For those who start a course in the autumn term, the relevant date is 1 August for the first year you start the course.

Ordinary residence

To be ordinarily resident in Scotland, you must have made your home in Scotland intending to stay and live here. If you are just in Scotland to study, but otherwise you would be living elsewhere, you are not ordinarily resident in Scotland.

Normally you will be classed as an ordinary resident if you meet all the following conditions:

• ordinary residence in Scotland
• ordinary residence in the United Kingdom and Islands throughout the period of 3 years immediately preceding the relevant date; and be one of the following:
  • settled in the United Kingdom within the meaning given by section 33(2A) (Interpretation) of the Immigration Act; or
  • a person (who has not applied for refugee status) but has been informed in writing by a person acting under the authority of the Secretary of State for the Home Department that is thought right to allow you to enter or remain in the United Kingdom and been granted leave to enter or remain accordingly which has not expired; or
  • the spouse, civil partner or child of a person described in the two preceding sub-paragraphs above.

Please note, holders of a student visa are not eligible for support. However, if you are a dependant of a holder of a student visa, and you meet the general residence conditions, you will be eligible for support.

If you are not eligible for support under the general residence conditions, you may still be eligible to apply to us for support under one of the exceptions to the ordinary residence conditions. 

If you don’t meet these conditions, please contact our Funding Advisors for further guidance as you may still be eligible to apply to us for support under one of the exceptions to the ordinary residence conditions.

If you are not eligible for UHI Moray funds on residency grounds, we will tell you why and if you may be eligible for funding from another fund or agency:

• Student Finance England
• Student Finance Wales 
• Student Finance NI
• Student Finance Jersey
• Student Finance Guernsey
• Student Finance Isle of Man

Family members of HM Forces personnel

Serving armed forces personnel and their families are very mobile. It can be challenging to establish their place of ordinary residence as they can live in various parts of the UK and overseas for varying periods. As a result, the Scottish Government policy is to consider the place in which the serving forces member was living before they first joined up as their place of ordinary residence. This approach is taken across all the UK Student Funding organisations and means that all serving forces personnel and their families should be eligible for student support from their home part of the UK.

In most cases, if your family member serving in HM Forces is someone who joined the armed forces whilst resident in Scotland, and the student decides to do an FE course, then they can apply to UHI Moray or SAAS for HE course support.

Family members include:

• husband
• wife
• civil partner
• child (including stepchild, adopted child and foster child)

If your family member signed up in another part of the UK, you should apply to that country’s funding body for support, unless you yourself are classed as a Scottish Resident e.g. before you married. 

Veterans of the armed forces

The above exception will not usually apply to veterans of the armed forces. This is because veterans are no longer serving members of the armed forces and are more likely to be living in a particular location permanently.   

Therefore, veterans who have exited the armed forces and have chosen to live in Scotland permanently may qualify for student support under our general residency conditions, regardless of where they signed up.   

Support for Foreign and Commonwealth citizens and their families, serving in the British Armed Forces

To be eligible for support from SAAS, Foreign and Commonwealth personnel and their families must be settled in the UK. This means you must:

• be a British Citizen or have Indefinite Leave to Remain
• be an ordinarily resident in the UK for three years
• Moved to Scotland to study

Student Funding Advisors will be happy to discuss this with you. Additionally, you may find it helpful to discuss funding with your local HM Forces Education team.

Find out more about funding for family members of HM Armed Forces

Students who don’t meet the general residence criteria

You may still be eligible for funding in certain circumstances.  Funding may be available to you if you are a:

• UK national or your family member who has returned to the UK to live or study, who currently live or have lived in another EU member state, the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland
• UK national who was born in and have spent the greater part of your life in the UK
• UK national returning from temporary employment or study outside the UK
• EEA or Swiss migrant worker/self-employed or frontier worker or your family member
• refugee or their spouse, civil partner or child/stepchild
• person granted exceptional leave to enter or remain, Humanitarian Protection or Discretionary Leave in the UK, as the result of an asylum claim, or are your spouse, civil partner, child or stepchild
• Syrian national who has come to the UK under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme
• Iraqi national who has been given indefinite leave to enter the UK under the Iraqi Direct Entry Scheme (also known as the Locally Engaged Staff Assistance Scheme (LESAS))
• Afghan national who has been given Leave to Enter under the Locally Employed Staff (LES) scheme
• person been granted leave to remain as a Stateless Person
• person under 18 and has been granted temporary protection in the UK
• dependent child of a Swiss national
• dependent child of a Turkish worker
• person who is under 18 and has lived in the UK throughout the 7 year period before the relevant date
• person who is 18 or over and has lived in the UK throughout a period of 20 years or at least half your life

You'll need to prove your status as one of the above when you apply for the funding. Please give details of which of the above criteria applies to you when you complete the application to speed up the assessment process.  If you're unsure if you're eligible, you should contact us as you may be liable to pay your own tuition fees.