There are two elements to personal eligibility: residence status and age.

Age
You must be under 60 at the commencement of your course to be eligible for the student loan for living costs. However, there’s no age limit for other forms of support, including loans for tuition fees.

Residence
The rules on residency are complicated. The following is meant only as a summary, and if you are unsure about your status you should contact your local authority (LA), Student Finance England (SFE), an adviser at your institution or your students’ union for further guidance. The Council for International Education (UKCISA) also runs an information line dealing with questions on residency.

In principle, to receive support from the UK government you must be resident in the UK on the first day of the first academic year of the course and have been 'ordinarily resident' in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, for the three years immediately preceding the first day of the first year of your course. If you’re not a British or EU citizen, no part of the three years can have been mainly for the purpose of full-time education – although you can have undertaken full-time education as long as that wasn’t your main reason for being in the UK.

You must also have ‘settled status’ in the UK within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971. In other words, this means you must be a British citizen or have right of abode or indefinite leave to enter or remain in the UK.

However, there are some exceptions to these rules. These include:

• Temporary absence
• Refugees
• Asylum seekers
• EU students
• EEA and Swiss migrant workers
• Child of a Turkish worker

If you fall into any of the above categories, seek advice from your students’ union or local authority.