UK Student Study in Ireland

nickybutler

My girlfriend is from the UK.
She would like to study at WIT.
She has lived in Ireland/Waterford for 12 months.
We both work part time jobs.
We rang Dungarvan VEC and were told that unless she is in the country 3 years she has to pay tuition & registration fees.
We rang the equivalent authority in the UK who told me they dont pay tuition fees for UK students studying in Ireland unless they are on the Erasmus programme.
Is there any other help out there? Or is it that simple that she cant study unless she can pay the 5k a year fees.

emollett

I am from the UK, and studied at TCD. Unless anything has changed in the last year, students from the UK (and anywhere else in the EU for that matter) pay exactly the same as Irish students do, so just the registration fee at the moment, and the tuition only if a year is repeated.
It is true though that the UK loans body wont give them to cover fees in Ireland, if they do come back properly, or to cover the registration fee.

travnett

Check your Residency
Regardless of whether you will be attending college close to home or away from home, you should apply to the local authority or VEC in your home area.

The residency requirement for the student grant is as follows:

The applicant shall have been ordinarily resident in the State for at least three out of the last five years immediately preceding the date on which a year of study on an approved course in an approved institution commences.

For example, if the next year of study on your chosen course commences on 20 September 2010, by the time this date comes around you will need to have been ordinarily resident in the State for at least three years in the period since 20 September 2005.

The only other circumstance in which you can be eligible on residency grounds without meeting the above requirement is as follows:

a) you were temporarily resident outside of the Irish State by reason of pursuing a course of study or postgraduate research, and

b) the course of study or postgraduate research took place in an approved institution outside of the Irish State but within an EU Member State, and

c) you were resident in the Irish State for at least three out of the five years immediately preceding the date on which you commenced the course of study or postgraduate research.

Has your GF by any chance studied in the last 3 years in the UK if so she may be entitled to the grant under the above conditions.

travnett

If you do not satisfy the residency requirement in Ireland, but have been living in another EU
Member State, the EEA or Switzerland for at least 3 of the last 5 years immediately before the
date on which a year of study commences, you may be eligible for a grant for tuition fees only.

According to the guidelines for filling out the 2010/2011 form she could be entitled to get the fees paid for even if she doesn't satisfy the residency requirements.

But like my previous post says, if she did go to college in the uk in the last 5 years she could satisfy the residency requirements and receive the full grant.

More info here

nickybutler

Hi Travnett,
Thanks alot for this, hope you had a good st patricks day, i will be showing it to my girlfriend tonight or tomorrow. Hopefully this works.
Nick