| Culzie | Date: Tuesday, 2012-05-01, 5:12 PM | Message # 1 |
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| Irish passport key to fee waiver in Scotland
By Maggie Taggart BBC Northern Ireland Education correspondent 31/4/2012
A Scottish government spokesman has confirmed that sixth form pupils in the UK who hold Irish passports qualify for free university tuition in Scotland.
Fees are rising to a maximum of £9000 across the UK but in Scotland, pupils who have lived there for at least three years do not have to pay fees.
This is also the case for EU students, as EU law does not allow discrimination against those from other member states.
Irish passport holders in Northern Ireland count as EU students.
Until now it was understood that students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland had to pay the higher fees in Scotland.
But the BBC has been told that those who have Irish passports are exempt. An investigation by BBC Northern Ireland has found that some pupils in Belfast are applying for Irish passports in order to get free tuition in Scotland.
A Scottish Government spokesman confirmed that nationality not residence was the key when it came to defining an EU student, and that anyone with an Irish passport living in the UK could apply for free tuition.
Students in Northern Ireland have dual nationality and can opt for Irish passports.
Cathy Moore, chair of the Careers Teachers' Association, said: "The Scottish Parliament has said if you have an Irish passport and live in Northern Ireland and provide that, (Irish passport) you are eligible to have the fees paid."
There is a degree of confusion about how widely this measure applies.
It is understood some Scottish universities have told students they will be classed as UK nationals and have to pay fees.
Northern Ireland born, Richard Beggs graduated from Dundee University in 2004. He tried and failed to avail of the alleged exemption: "I knew I was able to get an Irish passport and I thought I would be able to study for free but that wasn't the case.
"They told me because I didn't have an address in the Republic of Ireland over the last three years that I wasn't eligible."
Scottish Education Secretary Michael Russell said universities would have the final word but urged Northern Ireland students to be cautious.
"The purpose of the regulations is to guarantee Scottish students free access. It is not to find ways around for other people. Because of European law, people coming from other jurisdictions do get the same treatment as Scottish students but those in the rest of the UK don't," he said.
Mr Russell agreed the situation was "fluid".
Meanwhile, a bonus for Northern Ireland students, is that even if they are classed as EU students and avoid paying tuition fees, they can still get a student loan as a UK citizen.
A spokesperson from Universities Scotland said it was taking advice on the issue but, based on the most recent statistics available, there had not been a rise in applicants holding an Irish passport.
"The regulations for rest of UK fees are based on applicants' ordinary residency rather than nationality and this is the basis on which universities will be processing applications," said the spokesperson.
"Universities continue to liaise closely with the Scottish government and Student Awards Agency Scotland on these regulations in order to ensure the appropriate fee is applied."
Are you a Northern Ireland student intending to study in Scotland? Are you affected by the issues in this story? Send us your experiences using the form below
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| RSAUB | Date: Tuesday, 2012-05-01, 7:22 PM | Message # 2 |
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Colonel general
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| Just posted this on another topic, before I seen this.
It's crazy, but all part of the Rebels scums strategy to destroy the Union. By creating resentment and trying to segregate the Nation as much as possible but this is what happens when you give power to the enemies of the Union. Tony Blair has a lot to answer for, for me the Union is on borrowed time. For most people now, the only thing that makes them proud to be British is the Royal family or the British Army.
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| Culzie | Date: Tuesday, 2012-05-01, 7:48 PM | Message # 3 |
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| Yeah and Salmond says in the event of independence happening those Scots Regiments in the BA will be incorporated into the Scottish Army. A ex-army man taking to me in the club said the Scots wil never vote for independence. He might be right,nobody knows. But the thing is it is now up for debate. Not so long ago you'd have been 'laughted out of court' if you'd even suggested that there was a possibility of the Union breaking up. The Scottish Nats were I think formed in the 1930s and most of that time since they were thought of as oddballs, a weird bunch. the Welsh Nats were the same. For myself I never underestimated the power and pull of nationalism. Whats needed is a name and then get people to rally behind that name and to see themselves as being different even if only in some ways.
The honourable Bede saw the sense of giving the people a name and them rallying behind that name. What once had been an area of different tribes,sometimes warring with each other, now all fell in behind the name of....England
One thing,.. they must not have been Ulster Prods ha. They'd have probably said to the Bede ''does it give a f*** what ya call it,ya silly git'  Ah well you have to laugh or you'd cry.
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| RSAUB | Date: Thursday, 2012-05-03, 0:43 AM | Message # 4 |
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Colonel general
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| Very true, in all honesty Ulster Protestants don't deserve this home-land, they are a disgrace to those who have gone before, if those who gave their all during the siege of Londonderry and the Somme etc, could see the way their community has turned out and how they've been prepared too surrender more territory than enough just for the sake of an easy life and allowed the cultural destruction of our communities culture, they would turn in their graves or wouldn't have bothered making the stands that they did, so that our people could have a future in this land.
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| Culzie | Date: Thursday, 2012-05-03, 3:50 PM | Message # 5 |
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| Its one thing after the other and has been ongoing since as far back as the 1960s though then it was just one or maybe two things which were changed to irish. Trade Union Congress became the all ireland Congress,and the six-pointed star and hand of Ulster on it for the NI Blood Transfusion Service was changed to Eire's Pelican logo. But since the fall of Stormont and the Belfast Agreement it has acclerated bigtime.
This is part of a report in the NL re the passport/university issue. The universities here want to lift the cap on the number of students allowed. And at the sme time the DUP are speaking out against UK students coming here. Maybe I've picked it up wrong but thats how it seems to me...
The Stormont strategy also commits to reviewing the cap on student numbers for Northern Ireland’s two universities. Both institutions have been arguing for years to be allowed to take on more students.
The Maximum Student Number (MaSN) will be reviewed by 2016, the document says.
Last year the Executive’s decision to charge students from the rest of the UK more than those from the Republic divided unionist opinion.
The DUP supported the move, arguing that if it had not done so the Province’s universities would have been swamped with applications from across the water, shutting out local students.
However, the Ulster Unionists, TUV and the Conservatives opposed the decision.
The former Ulster Unionist employment and learning minister, Lord Empey, warned that there was “great resentment” at Westminster over the “anti-unionist” policy.
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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