Pay National fees or International Fees for Uni in the UK as a UK National? | ExpatWoman.com
 

Pay National fees or International Fees for Uni in the UK as a UK National?

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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 02 May 2020 - 21:36

I have two boys, one of which is two years from graduating his IB here in Dubai. His school's uni counselor has told us that even though my son is a UK national (born and raised) he might not be accepted to uni in the UK as a National student but instead as an International student meaning that he would have to pay the international fees which are two to three times the normal fees. I was rather shocked to hear this and apparently it is due to him finishing his schooling outside of the UK.

Does anyone have any experiences / advice that could help us out? Have any UK nationals living in the UAE had their child admitted as an international student rather than a National at a UK university?

1
Posts
EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 02 May 2020 - 22:07
Hi Maria, this is a very interesting question and I actually have first hand experience with having a child admitted to uni in the Uk having graduated from the IB curriculum in Dubai. My son graduated last year in 2019 and wanted to study back at home in the Uk. Of course he was also born and raised in the Uk and only has a British passport. Yet, when he applied to unis across the Uk he was exclusively offered places as an international student. This was a shock for us as we had assumed that as a Uk national he would have been admitted as a national student. We did try to reason with the Unis by sending emails back and forth and even chatting to the admissions officer on the phone, and it turns out that the reality is that if you are a Uk national, but have ended your last years of education abroad, outside of the Uk and Eu, you are deemed an international student and will therefore have to pay the extra 15000 pounds of tuition fees every year. I do have a second child that is 3 years away from graduating, and I can definitely say that we are going to be sending her back to the Uk to finish her last year there, so that she will get admitted to uni as a national and won't have to pay the extra tens of thousands of pounds each year of uni. Hope this helped.
 
 

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