Involved question about fees/citizenship/matriculation

ApeXaviour

Hi guys,
Okay, my girlfriend was born here to Irish parents and is an Irish citizen, but grew up in the US. She completed part (year and a half) of university education there (veterinary medicine major) but now she wants to go here. She's been living here for a year and is 20 years old.

I know to qualify for free fees one has to be an EU citizen and be a normal resident for 3 of the past 5 years. So if she waited for two years, would she be eligible? Would she need to sit the leaving cert? Or would her high-school diploma / university credits help at all?

At the moment she's trying her arm at applying to UCD to do animal science as an international student. They don't take international students for undergraduate entry into veterinary medicine. Unfortunately, as an international student she's liable for those ridiculously priced full fees. EU/residency fees are much more affordable (~6k as opposed to ~20k). After doing a bit of research, it appears she's not eligable for them either because of what's in bold below:
"If you are an EU citizen and you have received all your post-primary education in the EU but have not been resident in an EU state for 3 of the 5 years before beginning third-level education you may qualify for EU fees."
Is this for real? She has to wait two years and she can maybe get free fees and possibly even a grant... but at the moment she can't even get EU fees?

And finally one last question. Say, hypothetically, she sat the leaving cert and got enough points for Vet Med. UCD requires that she has Irish, English, Maths, Chemistry, and a third language. Would/could she be exempted from this Irish requirement? Does she need 3 languages anyway? The rest she's had a lot of experience with, biology, chemistry and english lit at university level.

Cheers for any help/clarification you can give.

Just curious Apex, have you queried this with the Dept. of Education yet? The one query I'd have with all this is that in two years time they might change the requirements for 'free fees' or, eh, scrap them altogether.

ApeXaviour

Haven't queried them, I was only really talking with her about it yesterday. I suggested the possibility of doing the leaving cert which hadn't occurred to her. I'm not even sure if I've got the above correct?

Hadn't thought of the possibility of changing. Who would I query? I guess I'd just call them, or email info@education.gov.ie

pow wow

ApeXaviour wrote: »

Hi guys,
Okay, my girlfriend was born here to Irish parents and is an Irish citizen, but grew up in the US. She completed part (year and a half) of university education there (veterinary medicine major) but now she wants to go here. She's been living here for a year and is 20 years old.

I know to qualify for free fees one has to be an EU citizen and be a normal resident for 3 of the past 5 years. So if she waited for two years, would she be eligible? Would she need to sit the leaving cert? Or would her high-school diploma / university credits help at all?

At the moment she's trying her arm at applying to UCD to do animal science as an international student. They don't take international students for undergraduate entry into veterinary medicine. Unfortunately, as an international student she's liable for those ridiculously priced full fees. EU/residency fees are much more affordable (~6k as opposed to ~20k). After doing a bit of research, it appears she's not eligable for them either because of what's in bold below:
"If you are an EU citizen and you have received all your post-primary education in the EU but have not been resident in an EU state for 3 of the 5 years before beginning third-level education you may qualify for EU fees."
Is this for real? She has to wait two years and she can maybe get free fees and possibly even a grant... but at the moment she can't even get EU fees?

And finally one last question. Say, hypothetically, she sat the leaving cert and got enough points for Vet Med. UCD requires that she has Irish, English, Maths, Chemistry, and a third language. Would/could she be exempted from this Irish requirement? Does she need 3 languages anyway? The rest she's had a lot of experience with, biology, chemistry and english lit at university level.

Cheers for any help/clarification you can give.

I'm reading that quote as saying if you've been EU educated but for whatever reason don't technically satisfy the residency requirement, you won't necessarily be penalised for it.

As she is an EU citizen who doesn't satisfy the educational requirement or the residency one, the residency requirement is the only one she could feasibly hope to satisfy in the future. So, once she can prove she's been resident (or will have been by the time she applies) for three years she should satisfy that requirement and get EU fees.

Has she spoken to UCD to see can she be classed as a special case re the educational requirements? She already has some university education which would add to her application. I don't know if vets actually 'need' Irish. UCD admissions might be more helpful.

ApeXaviour

ellscurr wrote: »

I'm reading that quote as saying if you've been EU educated but for whatever reason don't technically satisfy the residency requirement, you won't necessarily be penalised for it.

As she is an EU citizen who doesn't satisfy the educational requirement or the residency one, the residency requirement is the only one she could feasibly hope to satisfy in the future. So, once she can prove she's been resident (or will have been by the time she applies) for three years she should satisfy that requirement and get EU fees.

But for "free fees", there is no mention of second level EU education requirements


Quote from http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/education/third-level-education/fees-and-supports-for-third-level-education/fees

In order to qualify for free fees:

* You must be an EU national or have official refugee status and
* You must have been living in the EU (this includes any of the accession states) for at least 3 of the 5 years before starting your course and
* You must be undertaking a full-time undergraduate course of at least 2 years duration and
* You must not have a previous qualification to the same level (Students who hold a National Certificate or Diploma and are progressing to degree courses may be eligible) and
* You must not be repeating the year (although this exclusion may be waived where a student has to repeat a year due to certified serious illness)

She has spoken to UCD, and at the moment it seems they can only accept her as an international applicant. They won't tell her unless/until she's accepted whether her university credits count for anything there (i.e. can jump her ahead a year), but it seems unlikely.

pow wow

Well you said that EU citizens with 3 years residency get 'free' fees, so once she has the 3 yrs residency she'll get them too, right?

The other rule you were quoting doesn't contradict that, it just said that if you didn't satisfy the three year requirement but were EU educated you'd get it anyway.

UCD sound like they're being a bit sh1tty with her, is this admissions or the Head of Dept?