Until recently, students who have been granted humanitarian protection in the UK have been discriminated against in two ways. Unless they have been able to show they have been resident in the UK for the 3 years before their course starts, they have been charged fees as overseas students which are much higher than those for home students; and they have not been entitled to student finance.

The aim of this Strategic Public Law Clinic (SPLC) project was to ensure that students who should benefit, do so without having to take legal action themselves. And if they do run into difficulties, they know where they might find specialist legal help.

Following a legal challenge by one of Central England Law Centre’s clients, the government agreed that the 3-year residence requirement is unlawful and should not be applied for prospective students with humanitarian protection.

The Department of Education is notifying both the Student Loan Company and Universities about this. However, we were concerned that students who have humanitarian protection would still face difficulties if the correct information was not well-publicised.

Working remotely over the summer term, SPLC team researched and created a toolkit explaining the changes to the three-year ordinary resident requirement and to equip individuals who are affected by this issue, with an understanding of their rights when applying to university.

Take a look at the toolkit here.