SAAS - Scotland for EU Students

Manuel Ambra
May 4, 2020
2 min read

In the EU membership referendum held on 23 June 2016, all thirty-two council areas in Scotland voted by a majority for the UK to remain a member of the EU. Over 60% of Scottish citizens wanted to remain in the European Union.

Scotland has shown to support this Union not only by voting to stay, but also by granting educational possibilities to European students. As a matter fact, students from the EU enjoy the benefits of applying to Scottish universities. In regards of tuition fees, especially, SAAS is an extremely helpful platform.

What is SAAS?

The Student Awards Agency of Scotland (SAAS) supports eligible Scottish and EU students to fund their studies.

If you’re applying for an undergraduate degree, SAAS will cover your tuition fees for the entire duration of your course. These fees will be paid regardless of the student’s financial situation.

Moreover, SAAS offers bursaries, supplementary grants and student loans.

Eligibility for EU Students

To be eligible for student funding, you must meet some criteria.

You must be an EU national (not from the UK), or the family member an EU national on the relevant date. You must also have been living (ordinarily resident) for 3 years immediately before the relevant date in: - EU or its overseas territories - the rest of the EEA - Switzerland

The relevant date depends on when your course will start.

If you have previously done a course of higher education in the UK or the EU, SAAS may not be able to offer support. Also, they won’t pay your tuition fees if you are studying in Scotland for one year as part of your home course, to which you will graduate from.

Application

SAAS applications usually open in April. To apply for student funding, you need to register on SAAS website and fill in all the necessary information.

SAAS requires you to describe what you have been doing for the past three years. Be sure to include your education, employability and other activities (such as volunteering, travelling…). Don’t worry, you don’t need to complete your application in one day. You can save your changes and continue in another moment.

Once you’ve completed all the forms, you can submit your application and wait for SAAS to get back to you.

Dashboard

After sending in an application, you may receive notifications on your Dashboard (the control panel of your SAAS account). From this platform, you have access to all the functions of your profile. Moreover, the status of your application will be shown here.

In order to establish if you are eligible to receive funding, you might have to send a clear colour copy of your National ID Card or Passport. You can do so by using the Document Uploader.

Also, in case you need to ask a question or contact the SAAS team, you can submit enquiries directly from the Dashboard.

At the end of every session, remember to log out. If you don’t exit the page correctly, you will need to wait 15 minutes before being able to log in again.

For more information, visit SAAS website.

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