IGCSE

[mummy11plus]

My friends children are doing IGCSE in International school out of UK.
how the grades are weighed in UK?
After IGCSE will they be able to continue in UK in 6 th form?

[PurpleDuck]

No idea how the grades are going to be treated in the UK, but the best thing for your friends to do would be to get in touch with the 6th forms they have in mind and ask them directly how that would work. I'm pretty sure it could be explained over the telephone.

[Ladymuck]

They'll be seen to be on a par, grade for grade, with the UK GCSE qualification.

There are issues in term of school league tables as to which qualifications "count" or not, but for the individual pupil, there is no such issue, and 6th forms will usually view the qualifications as directly comparable, whether GCSE or iGCSE.

Currently many independent schools will still sit iGCSE though these will start being graded on the 1-9 basis too (though with a delay or a year or two after the 1-9 GCSEs are introduced).

Obviously there are other issues other than grades that will determine whether a pupil currently overseas can attend a UK 6th form, but taking iGCSE rather than GCSE won't be a problem. Equally the UK schools are used to dealing with a range of other exam systems, especially given that Scotland has its own exam system.

[mummy11plus]

Will they be treated as home students for university as father is living in london and paying NIE , Council tax. Plus they are British nationals.

[Amber]

It might be worth asking a mod to move this thread out of Gloucestershire and to somewhere in the Beyond 11 plus section. You have moved from iGCSE to residence rules for university and I think expertise may well come from outside Gloucestershire on that one.

[Lizzie]

Will they be treated as home students for university as father is living in london and paying NIE , Council tax. Plus they are British nationals.

I'm a British expat and this question comes up frequently on the expat boards. As I understand it from those conversations a student has to have been resident in the UK for 3 years prior to starting university to qualify for domestic fees, less than 3 years and they pay international fees. The rule applies whether they are a British citizen or not and regardless of whether one of the parents has been resident in the UK because it is the student that must have been resident.

I'm pretty sure the rule does not apply if the student has been living abroad due to parent in the Armed Forces, diplomat etc. I think there is also some exceptions if they can prove the family is abroad on a "temporary" employment assignment by British based employer but I don't know the exact details of that.

From the Brit expat forums I have seen those who have had to pay International fees, those who have gone to university in other countries because they would have to pay International fees, those who have sent their child to 6th form in the UK and added a gap year in order to make the 3 year residence requirement and some who have had luck not being charged International fees despite not being resident in the UK for the required 3 years - but the consensus seems to be that is "luck" due to the university not understanding the rule, not knowing that the student has been non resident for 3 years, wanting the student so agreeing to charge lower fee, etc. so you could call it "luck" or breaking the rule or negotiating the price!

Hope that helps a bit and if your friend does an Internet search I'm sure there is lots of info out there and it comes up often on the BritishExpats forum.

[ToadMum]

As far as I am aware, the residence in the UK does not count if it is purely for educational purposes, e.g.. a US citizen sent to boarding school in the UK from year 10 to year 13 does not become a home student on the strength of that.

[Lizzie]

Toadmum,

That is how I understand it too. If the student comes back to the UK for 6th form (or for younger for GCSEs) it can't be just boarding school they have to actually be fully resident. Some families will have one parent come back with them, some have them live with grandparents etc. but they do have to be resident not just here for schooling. Sorry my post about 6th form wasn't very clear.

It's a bit of a minefield trying to keep all the rules straight and then of course best laid plans can be ruined by laws suddenly changing.

Also, I should have said I was writing as an expat in the USA I'm assuming for expats in the EU that 3 year residence isn't required because they are in an EU country - except of course now in the aftermath of the referendum who knows what the rule will be

[mummy11plus]

Thanks for the information. Mother of the child got some illness and so she is under treatment. So child is with her. It is some special type of treatment which is not available in UK.
so in this case it is not child's fault at all. Don't know how the university considers this case.

[steppemum]

As part of my work we help families returning to the uk. They are people working for UK based companies, but have sometimes been overseas for a long time (15 years)

There is a clause in the regs that a family only on temporary assignment overseas can be classified as a UK student. Most students I have contact with coming back claiming this seem to get it, but not all, it varies from university to university.
The key points though are:
1. employed by a UK company with a contract stating it is for a limited time (eg 2 year placement, although as I said above, some families have renewed their contracts lots of times and still got it.)
2. evidence of retained life in UK (eg house owned and let for time overseas)


It isn't easy to do, and you have to fill all the forms in the right way, which also isn't easy.

It is pretty much impossible if you are employed by a company based overseas.