Support for nursing and midwifery students in Scotland 2018-2019

Eligibility

Students’ eligibility is governed by the Nursing and Midwifery Student Allowances (Scotland) Regulations 2007. This booklet is only intended to guide students to the main eligibility criteria set out in these regulations; it is not intended to be exhaustive.

Students undertaking courses in pre-registration nursing and midwifery leading to the award of a degree may be eligible for a bursary under the NMSB scheme. Eligibility for support depends on THREE conditions:

• hat your course is eligible;
• hat you have not had previous NMSB funding; and
• hat you meet the residence requirements.

Course eligibiliaty

Bursaries are for eligible students attending courses which:

• lead to registration on the Professional Register maintained by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), which may include degree, honours and masters levels; and
• are partly or wholly funded by the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates (SGHSCD).

Funding Eligibility

You may not be eligible for a bursary if you have been in receipt of NMSB funding in the past for a pre-registration nursing or midwifery course; eligibility will depend on the type and level of funding previously received.

Students Resident In UK Countries – Reciprocal Arrangement

• Following the decision of the UK Government to remove the health bursary and move to a loans-based support package for nursing and midwifery, students from England, Wales or Northern Ireland, who started their course from 2017/18 and thereafter and choose to study in Scotland, should apply to their home country funding body for the tuition fee and income-assessed living cost loan for living cost support.

• New Scottish students who started their course from 2017/18 and thereafter and choose to study nursing or midwifery in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, will not be able to access the non-repayable, non-income-assessed NMSB package. Instead these students should apply to SAAS for the standard undergraduate package of a tuition fee loan and an income-assessed living cost loan while studying nursing and midwifery in other UK countries. Students can also apply for an Independent Students’ Bursary, Young Students’ Bursary and other supplementary grants, where eligible.

• Continuing students from England, Wales or Northern Ireland, who started their Nursing or Midwifery course before the 2017/18 Academic Year, will continue to be entitled to the bursary and have tuition fees paid. These funding arrangements will continue until you complete your studies. However, you will not be entitled to apply for a tuition fee or income-assessed living cost loan from your home country if you are in receipt of the Scottish NMSB.

Residence eligibility

To be eligible for the NMSB you must have been ordinarily resident^* in the UK for the three years immediately before the relevant date (the first day of the first academic year of the course), and ordinarily resident in Scotland on the relevant date. This date will be 1 August 2018. You must also be on a course that leads to registration on the Professional Register maintained by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

Generally to qualify for support you must be:

• ordinarily resident (see Note 1 below) in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man, for three years immediately before the first day of the first academic year of the course;
• settled in the UK as described in the Immigration Act 1971;
• ordinarily resident in Scotland on the first day of the first academic year of the course; and
• studying full-time in higher education.

If you don’t meet the general residence conditions above, you may still be eligible to apply to SAAS for funding in certain circumstances.

The residence eligibility conditions can be complicated. If you are in any doubt about your residence status, you should contact SAAS for advice or visit their website for more information.

*Note 1.
Ordinarily resident has been defined in the courts as ‘habitual and normal residence in one place’. It basically means that you live in a country year after year by choice through a set period, apart from temporary or occasional absences such as holidays or business trips. Living here totally or mainly
for the purpose of receiving full-time education does not count as being ordinarily resident.

Care Experienced Students

Following the announcement of planned changes to the support available to Nursing and Midwifery students from the 2019/20 academic session, as an interim measure, from 2018/19 eligible care experienced student nurses and midwives, in receipt of a Nursing and Midwifery Student Bursary (NMSB) in 2018/19, will receive an overall NMSB funding package of £8,100. This is an increase of £1,522 for students in years 1, 2 or 3 of their course. Students in year 4 of their course will receive an increase of £1,141.

To be eligible for this additional NMSB funding you must meet the following conditions:

• You are or were under the age of 26 on the first day of the first academic year of your course; and
• You are care experienced – this means you have been formally looked after by a local authority, for example: foster care, residential care, kinship care or compulsory supervision order

You do not have to do anything. The Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) are contacting those students who may meet the above 2 criteria to explain how to apply for this additional payment.

Students from the European Union

Eligible EU students will only receive tuition fee support. As such they do not need to apply to SAAS as their university will handle payment of fees for eligible EU students.

If you do not meet the conditions above, you may still be eligible to apply to us for funding in certain circumstances. If you are in any doubt about your residence status, you should contact SAAS for advice or visit their website for more information.