EU students seem to have a reason to smile and why not?! The European Court of Justice has pronounced that EU students who had spent a good four years at a UK school could deem that time as a proof of residency and thereby apply for a government loan for studying at any UK university.
This came after Mr. Dany Bidar, a resident of France challenged the borough of Ealing, west London’s decision of rejecting his loan plea on the grounds of not being ‘settled’, in spite of the education years spent at a secondary school in UK.
The EU court’s decision to acknowledge time spent at a UK school as full residency came as a welcome relief for EU students, besides Mr. Dany Bidar. It clarified that no EU citizen legally residing in another member state would be subject to discrimination based on nationality. The court declared that Mr. Bidar’s time spent in a UK school had bonded him with the society and had thus made him eligible for a loan.
However, this change in the UK policy does not see a flood of loan applications coming because of the various terms and conditions attached to the ruling. Most students do not fall under the bracket of the terms of the policy and hence, continue to be ineligible for grants and loans.
Posted
on : Wed, 16 Mar 2005 00:00 GMT | Loans News
By : Mike Lawson
|
