Tuition fee limits for students residing within the Common Travel Area (SFWIN 06/2025)
Clarifies the tuition fee policy for students who normally live in the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and the Republic of Ireland.
This file may not be fully accessible.
This Information Notice clarifies the tuition fee limits and qualifying persons for the purpose of fee charging by Welsh Institutions in respect of eligible students who are ordinarily resident in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
Tuition fee limit for eligible students from within the Common Travel Area
The Higher Education (Qualifying Courses, Qualifying Persons and Supplementary Provision) (Wales) Regulations 2015 (“the 2015 Regulations”) limits the tuition fees charged to certain groups on certain courses.
Category 2A of the Schedule of the 2015 Regulations sets out the criteria for a person ordinarily resident within the Common Travel Area (CTA) to be an eligible student and qualify for the tuition fee limit. The CTA comprises the UK, the Islands (defined as the Channel Islands and Isle of Man) and the Republic of Ireland.
Irish citizens and people from the Islands who are settled in the UK in accordance with CTA arrangements, have access to home fee status and tuition fee limits on the basis of three years residence in the CTA.
All eligible students from within the CTA continue to benefit from home fee status and the tuition fee cap when studying in Wales. This is existing policy and has not changed.
Qualifying persons for the purposes of fee charging
Under regulation 4(1) of the 2015 Regulations a qualifying person is a person who falls within a prescribed category (such as Category 2A) on the first day of an academic year. Reference to the first day of an ‘academic year’ within regulation 4(1) refers to when the course begins and not the technical interpretation of academic year, i.e. 1 January, 1 April, 1 July, 1 September, which applies in some other places within the Regulations.
Recent regulatory amendments made via Education (Student Finance) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2025 (‘the 2025 Regulations’) made changes to student support and fee protection regulations, including the 2015 Regulations, to remove the requirement to be settled on the day on which the first term of the first academic year actually begins to enable students who acquire settled status during an academic year to become eligible for student support during an academic year and to qualify for home fee status and the tuition fee cap in the following academic year. However, the regulatory position regarding the ordinary residence requirements remains unchanged.
Therefore, persons from within the CTA need only be ordinarily resident in the UK on the actual start date of the course, and not before, in order to be eligible for tuition fee limits.
Welsh Institutions must ensure eligible students who are ordinarily resident in the territory comprising the UK, the Islands and the Republic of Ireland are charged fees in accordance with the relevant Regulations and Welsh Government policy, as clarified within this advice.
Enquiries
If you have queries about applications, how to apply, payments or any other aspect of the service, please contact Student Finance Wales.
If you have any queries about this Information Notice, please email the Strategy and Funding Division, Welsh Government.
Large print, Braille and alternate language versions of this document are available on request.
We welcome correspondence in Welsh or English.