Fees...EU/Non EU

Bass Cadet

Hello all...

I'm a chartered engineer working in Dublin since last November. Previous to that I studied and worked in San Francisco for six years.

I'm very interested in doing a postgrad course in TCD. I contacted the couple of emails provided as 'contacts' for more information on the course.

None of my questions about the course were answered but I was told that because I was 'out of the country for over three years' I was due to pay 'Non-EU tuition fees'. This basically means I would have to pay €11k instead of ~€6k for this postgrad.

Even while in the USA, my primary address and property (where I paid property tax) was in Galway. So esssentially even though I studied and worked in the US...my main residence was in Ireland throughout that time. (As it has to be as part of my USA F-1 student visa)

Does anyone know my options here? Does the fact that I've been working since I came home (Nov 2014) ensure I am actually only due 'EU citizen fees' or can someone point me in the right direction where I'd be able to get absolute confirmation on this...

I don't want to sound bitter but I took a job here in Ireland over a job in the US because I wanted live and work in Ireland and I'm an Irish and EU citizen. The fact that I'm not recognised as such is shocking.

Anyway...any and all comments/advice appreciated...thanks

BC

gutenberg

My understanding of things is that it is based on your actual residency, i.e. you had to actually be living in the country fulltime to qualify for EU fee status, rather than simply have maintained a house here.

Here is a link about determining your fee status. It says that to qualify for EU fees, you must be someone who:

a) who is ordinarily resident in the EU and who has received full-time further or higher education in the EU for three of the five years immediately preceding admission; or

b) who is ordinarily resident in the EU and has worked full-time in the EU for three of the five years immediately preceding admission; or

c) who holds a passport from an EU State and has received full-time further or higher education in the EU for three of the five years immediately preceding admission.

I had a friend during my undergraduate degree in Trinity who was also paying non-EU fees, despite being an Irish citizen, because she & her family had lived in the Middle East for the previous 10 years, and she had received her secondary schooling there, and so for the first 3 years she didn't qualify as an EU student. They also, like you, maintained a house in Ireland, but that's not how it's assessed, and it's not based on citizenship. It's based on actual residency/presence in the country, as determined by participation in education or the workforce. I doubt there's a way around it until you've been back for long enough to qualify as 'EU' again. Best of luck with everything

Bass Cadet

gutenberg wrote: »

My understanding of things is that it is based on your actual residency, i.e. you had to actually be living in the country fulltime to qualify for EU fee status, rather than simply have maintained a house here.

Here is a link about determining your fee status. It says that to qualify for EU fees, you must be someone who:

a) who is ordinarily resident in the EU and who has received full-time further or higher education in the EU for three of the five years immediately preceding admission; or

b) who is ordinarily resident in the EU and has worked full-time in the EU for three of the five years immediately preceding admission; or

c) who holds a passport from an EU State and has received full-time further or higher education in the EU for three of the five years immediately preceding admission.

I had a friend during my undergraduate degree in Trinity who was also paying non-EU fees, despite being an Irish citizen, because she & her family had lived in the Middle East for the previous 10 years, and she had received her secondary schooling there, and so for the first 3 years she didn't qualify as an EU student. They also, like you, maintained a house in Ireland, but that's not how it's assessed, and it's not based on citizenship. It's based on actual residency/presence in the country, as determined by participation in education or the workforce. I doubt there's a way around it until you've been back for long enough to qualify as 'EU' again. Best of luck with everything

Okay...thanks. Not good news but appreciate it. My actual 'residency' was in Ireland, not the USA, even though I studied there. I guess I'll just have to literally walk into TCD and make sure. cheers

gutenberg

Bass Cadet wrote: »

Okay...thanks. Not good news but appreciate it. My actual 'residency' was in Ireland, not the USA, even though I studied there. I guess I'll just have to literally walk into TCD and make sure. cheers

I guess from TCD's point of view, if you've been studying and working in America for the past six years, that means you were living there, even if you maintained a house in Ireland, as opposed to studying/working fulltime here or in the EU.

But yes, definitely worth asking!

234

gutenberg wrote: »

I guess from TCD's point of view, if you've been studying and working in America for the past six years, that means you were living there, even if you maintained a house in Ireland, as opposed to studying/working fulltime here or in the EU.

But yes, definitely worth asking!

While you certainly seem to have an argument about your ordinary residency, you seem unable to satisfy the education or working requirements. So it looks unlikely that you can convince them.

gutenberg

234 wrote: »

While you certainly seem to have an argument about your ordinary residency, you seem unable to satisfy the education or working requirements. So it looks unlikely that you can convince them.

Sadly I agree, I think the OP is unlikely to be able to get around it. If they were prepared to wait another year or two then the fees would return to EU levels, providing he/she continued to work in Ireland.