Financial help for EU students
If you're from an EU country, you can apply for financial help for tuition fees for studying in Northern Ireland, England or Wales if you started your course on or before academic year 2020/21. For courses starting academic year 2021/2022 EU, other EEA, and Swiss nationals and their family members will no longer be eligible for financial support from Student Finance NI (with exceptions listed below).
Financial help for EU students starting courses academic year 2021/22
Following the UK Government’s decision to leave the EU, EU, other EEA and Swiss nationals and their family members will no longer be eligible for ‘home’ fee charges or financial support from Student Finance NI for courses starting from academic year 2021/22.
This will not affect students starting courses in academic year 2020/21. Nor will it affect those EU, other EEA and Swiss nationals benefitting from Citizens’ Rights under the EU Withdrawal Agreement, EEA EFTA Separation Agreement or Swiss Citizens’ Rights Agreement respectively. These students are required to hold ‘pre-settled’ or ‘settled’ status under the EU Settlement Scheme.
These arrangements will not apply to RoI nationals living in the UK and Ireland, Gibraltar, EEA or Switzerland whose right to study and to access benefits and services will be preserved on a reciprocal basis for UK and Irish nationals under the Common Travel Area arrangement.
New EU students in academic year 2021-2022
If you're from an EU country, you can apply for financial help to cover the cost of tuition fees for studying in Northern Ireland, England or Wales. You may also qualify for help with living costs.
Help with tuition fees: who qualifies
EU nationals
As a European Union (EU) national, or a family member of an EU national, you can generally apply for financial help to cover the cost of tuition fees when studying in Northern Ireland, England, or Wales if:
- you have been living within the EEA and Switzerland for the three years immediately before the start of your course
- your main reason for being in the EEA and Switzerland was not to receive full-time education
If you or your parent, guardian or partner were temporarily employed outside the EEA and Switzerland for all or part of the three-year period, you may still qualify for help.
Non-RoI EU nationals are required to hold ‘pre-settled’ or ‘settled’ status under the EU Settlement Scheme.
EEA and Swiss migrant workers
You may also apply for financial help with tuition fees if you are an EEA or Swiss migrant worker or self-employed person in the UK. A migrant worker means someone who is working in a different country from their own. Usually, you'll qualify for EEA or Swiss migrant worker status if all the following apply:
- you are a national of an EEA country or Switzerland
- you are working in the UK
- you were ‘ordinarily resident’ in the EEA and Switzerland for three years before starting your course
You may also qualify if you are a family member of a migrant worker in the UK
Children of Swiss nationals
You may get help with tuition fees if you qualify as the child of a Swiss national. Help is generally available if:
- you were ordinarily resident in the UK, Gibraltar, EEA or Switzerland for three years before the start of your course
- you were resident in Northern Ireland on the first day of the academic year in which your course started
- a child of a Swiss national who is entitled to support in the UK by virtue of Article 18(2) of the Swiss citizens’ rights agreement
Children of Turkish workers
You may get help with tuition fees if you qualify as the child of a ‘Turkish worker’. Help is generally available if:
- you were ordinarily resident in the UK, Gibraltar, EEA, Switzerland or Turkey for three years before the start of your course
- you were resident in Northern Ireland on the first day of the academic year in which your course started
- you’re the child of a ‘Turkish worker’ in the UK - a Turkish national who is ordinarily resident in the UK, and who is, or has been, lawfully employed in the UK
- and where both the Turkish worker and the child were ordinarily resident in the UK by 31 December 2020
Your local Student Finance NI office can help with questions about whether you qualify through Swiss or EEA migrant worker status, or as the child of a Turkish worker in the UK.
Extra help with living costs
You may also be able to apply for help with your living costs, on top of help with fees, if you:
- have lived in the ‘UK or Islands’ (the UK plus the Channel Islands and Isle of Man ) for three years or more
- have EEA or Swiss migrant worker status
- qualify for help as the child of a Swiss national as described above
- qualify for help as the child of a ‘Turkish worker’, as described above