Policy Statement – Interim Policy for handling cases following the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Tigere

The Department is giving full consideration to the Supreme Court’s ruling of 29 July 2015 (on the application of Tigere) (Appellant) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (respondent) 2015 UKSC57. The adoption of the policy set out below is an interim measure: it is entirely without prejudice to any future position on eligibility for student support that the Secretary of State may decide to adopt at a future date.

In that regard, the Department will soon be launching a public consultation to seek views on what regulatory changes may be required in light of the ruling.

As an interim policy measure, the Secretary of State intends to use an adaptation of the Immigration Rule 276ADE(1) (as proposed by Lord Hughes’s judgment in the Supreme Court’s ruling) when considering post-Tigere applications for exceptional student support.

The Department will consider these individual cases against the following criteria:

• those under 18 years of age to have lived in the UK for at least 7 years;
• those aged 18-25 years who have spent at least half their life in the UK;
• is ordinarily resident in England; and
• has been ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom and Islands throughout the three year period preceding the first day of the first academic year of the course.

The Department plans to amend the Student Support Regulations during this academic year such amended regulation would supersede this interim policy.