This is a busy period for Year 13 students at the many British curriculum schools in the UAE. Students may typically be preparing for exams while simultaneously seeking to secure a place at a UK university for the following academic year.
The UK’s Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, UCAS, says it handles more than 3 million applicants in each recruitment cycle from 750,000 candidates in Britain and elsewhere. The initial deadline for applications passed at the end of last month and offers are being sent out to prospective students.
The stress of long hours of exam preparation is often added to by the uncertainty over whether an applicant receives offers from their preferred choice of university. There is also a lack of clarity over fee status for British students who may live outside their home country.
For Year 13 students domiciled outside the UK, universities will make a separate call on their residency status, which affects the fees that the undergraduate pays for their studies. They may do this before or after a grades-dependent offer is issued.
The Department of Education in England sets the rules for who secures “home-status”, but individual universities are able to use their discretion in selection processes. Universities may require further evidence of a candidate’s links to the UK before deciding whether a person should be given “home-status” or be classed as an international student. Crucially, being a British passport holder does not automatically confer that status.
It is not unusual for a candidate to have to provide “hard” evidence, such as booking receipts or boarding passes from flights to England over the past few years, or details of their parents’ employment status outside the UK including partial copies of work contracts, or even provide financial documents such as mortgage statements and utility bills to trace footprints back to England and establish familial or habitual connections with their “home” country.
Even when presented with these documents, it is possible that an English university may categorise a student with a UK passport as an international undergraduate rather than offering home-status.
Forms typically ask candidates to explain their 'absence' from Britain, making the presumption that they were 'active and central' participants in a family’s decision to move abroad
Fees for home-status students are capped at £9,250 (about Dh42,000) a year in 2024-25, although they will rise to £9,535 from the next academic year, while overseas student fees are typically at least £20,000 (about Dh90,000) a year. They could even be double that figure for specialist degrees, such as medicine. Those numbers do not consider living costs, which add about £1,200 a month, according to general guidance from the British Council. International students may also be required to pay a substantial deposit to confirm their place once they have received an offer.
UK students can seek publicly funded support, in the form of loans for tuition fees and day-to-day living, which become repayable once a graduate has entered the workforce and is earning above a certain threshold.
Home-status students previously domiciled temporarily outside the UK may be able to apply for maintenance loans, but only after they have lived in the country for three years, which is the length of a standard undergraduate degree. They are likely to be able to apply for loans to support their tuition fees. International students will probably have to entirely fund their studies from savings, cashflow, gifts or scholarships.
So how do you unpick this Gordian Knot? The easiest way to unclog administrative backlogs would be to either classify all British passport holder applicants as home-status students or, failing that, to create three tiers of fees.
That would mean adding a “returning to the UK after attending school abroad” category to sit in between home and international status. At least that would provide clarity for families overseas and allow them to better plan financially over the longer term, assuming fee levels were set at a reasonable compromise level.
Universities should also be encouraged to have a standard set of information requirements or forms when making fee status judgment. While they operate under common guidelines, their discretionary powers promote quirks in the system and prompt varying levels of disclosure, so that two students may have very different outcomes from the same university, even when their circumstances are broadly similar.
While estimates vary about how many UK passport holders live overseas, it is probably no less than 5.5 million people, many of whom are young people who will seek to return to UK universities at 18 or 19 years old.
Those young adults are unlikely to have been primary decision-makers in their households when a family left the UK to move abroad. But forms typically ask candidates to explain and account for their “absence” from Britain, making the presumption that they were “active and central” participants in a family’s decision to move abroad.
These forms also assume that families exist in unchanging suspension once they leave the UK. Many expatriates with school-aged children leave the UK for work but could suddenly return if job opportunities dry up elsewhere or family circumstances demand a permanent return to Britain. Home-status forms typically assume expats have emigrated to their host country, rather than, in many cases, temporarily residing overseas.
A fresh perspective is required and one that starts with redefining the meaning of “home” country.
The five pillars of Islam
The five pillars of Islam
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The biog
Favourite book: Men are from Mars Women are from Venus
Favourite travel destination: Ooty, a hill station in South India
Hobbies: Cooking. Biryani, pepper crab are her signature dishes
Favourite place in UAE: Marjan Island
BRIEF SCORES
England 353 and 313-8 dec
(B Stokes 112, A Cook 88; M Morkel 3-70, K Rabada 3-85)
(J Bairstow 63, T Westley 59, J Root 50; K Maharaj 3-50)
South Africa 175 and 252
(T Bavuma 52; T Roland-Jones 5-57, J Anderson 3-25)
(D Elgar 136; M Ali 4-45, T Roland-Jones 3-72)
Result: England won by 239 runs
England lead four-match series 2-1
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
- Flexible work arrangements
- Pension support
- Mental well-being assistance
- Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
- Financial well-being incentives
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Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Analysis
Maros Sefcovic is juggling multiple international trade agreement files, but his message was clear when he spoke to The National on Wednesday.
The EU-UAE bilateral trade deal will be finalised soon, he said. It is in everyone’s interests to do so. Both sides want to move quickly and are in alignment. He said the UAE is a very important partner for the EU. It’s full speed ahead - and with some lofty ambitions - on the road to a free trade agreement.
We also talked about US-EU tariffs. He answered that both sides need to talk more and more often, but he is prepared to defend Europe's position and said diplomacy should be a guiding principle through the current moment.
10 tips for entry-level job seekers
- Have an up-to-date, professional LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, set one up today. Avoid poor-quality profile pictures with distracting backgrounds. Include a professional summary and begin to grow your network.
- Keep track of the job trends in your sector through the news. Apply for job alerts at your dream organisations and the types of jobs you want – LinkedIn uses AI to share similar relevant jobs based on your selections.
- Double check that you’ve highlighted relevant skills on your resume and LinkedIn profile.
- For most entry-level jobs, your resume will first be filtered by an applicant tracking system for keywords. Look closely at the description of the job you are applying for and mirror the language as much as possible (while being honest and accurate about your skills and experience).
- Keep your CV professional and in a simple format – make sure you tailor your cover letter and application to the company and role.
- Go online and look for details on job specifications for your target position. Make a list of skills required and set yourself some learning goals to tick off all the necessary skills one by one.
- Don’t be afraid to reach outside your immediate friends and family to other acquaintances and let them know you are looking for new opportunities.
- Make sure you’ve set your LinkedIn profile to signal that you are “open to opportunities”. Also be sure to use LinkedIn to search for people who are still actively hiring by searching for those that have the headline “I’m hiring” or “We’re hiring” in their profile.
- Prepare for online interviews using mock interview tools. Even before landing interviews, it can be useful to start practising.
- Be professional and patient. Always be professional with whoever you are interacting with throughout your search process, this will be remembered. You need to be patient, dedicated and not give up on your search. Candidates need to make sure they are following up appropriately for roles they have applied.
Arda Atalay, head of Mena private sector at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Rudy Bier, managing partner of Kinetic Business Solutions and Ben Kinerman Daltrey, co-founder of KinFitz
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Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The bio
Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district
Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school
Enjoys driving to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah with family
His dream is to continue working as a social worker and help people
Has seven diaries in which he has jotted down notes about his work and money he earned
Keeps the diaries in his car to remember his journey in the Emirates
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Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Why seagrass matters
- Carbon sink: Seagrass sequesters carbon up to 35X faster than tropical rainforests
- Marine nursery: Crucial habitat for juvenile fish, crustations, and invertebrates
- Biodiversity: Support species like sea turtles, dugongs, and seabirds
- Coastal protection: Reduce erosion and improve water quality
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
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Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
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In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
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RESULT
Manchester United 2 Burnley 2
Man United: Lingard (53', 90' 1)
Burnley: Barnes (3'), Defour (36')
Man of the Match: Jesse Lingard (Manchester United)
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Coal Black Mornings
Brett Anderson
Little Brown Book Group
Zayed Sustainability Prize
