Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will consider reducing the British National Overseas visa holders' requirement for home fee status to three years of continuous residence.

To qualify for home fee status in the UK, a person must have settled status or ’a recognised connection’ to the UK, and in the case of persons with settled status, be ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands (Channel Islands and Isle of Man) for three years prior to the first day of the first academic year of the course.

Subject to meeting the other relevant eligibility requirements, persons with the status of British Nationals Overseas (BN(O)) will be able to qualify for home fee status and student finance once they have acquired settled status in the UK (usually after five years). Most persons who acquire settled status will automatically meet the three-year ordinary residence requirement. There are no plans to exempt Hong Kong BN(O)s from the requirement that applies to other British Nationals that they must be settled in the UK before becoming eligible for student funding.

The department has not made an assessment of the number of persons with BN(O) status, or persons of any other nationality, who are unable to afford the cost of paying international tuition fees at UK universities.