Fee status

The tuition fee you pay depends on your fee status category and if you are classified by the UK Government as ‘home’, ‘Channel Islands and Isle of Man’ (‘Islands’) or ‘Overseas’ (or ‘International’ as we refer to it at Sussex).

Undergraduate students taking part in lab work at the University of Sussex

Check your fee status

We charge fees at different levels:

  • Home rate
  • Channel Islands and Isle of Man (also referred to as ‘Islands rate’)
  • Overseas rate (also referred to as ‘International’)

Our fees are subject to annual inflation and may change in line with government policy.

Check your fee status
(UKCISA website)

Fee status classification

Your fee status is determined in accordance with UK government regulations. Regulations around fee classification are complicated and you can check your fee status at the website of the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA).

The assessment of fee status is made during the admissions process.

If your fee status is unclear

If your fee status is unclear your offer letter will advise you of this.

We'll contact you to ask for more information if your fee status isn't clear, and may ask you to fill in a fee status questionnaire and provide extra documents.

If you are asked to do this, please complete the following:

Download our fee status questionnaire [DOC, 41KB]

You should email the completed questionnaire to:

We’ll then assess this information and contact you to confirm your fee status.

If your fee status is undetermined at the start of your studies, we will set your fees at the International ‘Overseas’ rate, but can reassess this as part the registration process.

Requesting a review of your fee status

If you disagree with your fee status after the assessment you should first request to have it reviewed. You should email the relevant office asking for a fee status review:

You can submit extra evidence and we might ask for more information. We then send you an email or letter to confirm your status.

Appeal your fee status

If, after the review, you believe there are grounds why your fee assessment is still incorrect, you can appeal the decision by emailing feeappeals@sussex.ac.uk, explaining why you disagree with the outcome of the review.

We will reassess your case and respond to confirm our final decision on your fee status classification.

You must submit any appeal of your fee status classification before you start and register on your course. After you register, your fee classification will not normally change except in certain circumstances, such as:

  • if your circumstances change (for example, you become a UK national or get refugee status) so that you may potentially qualify for a different fee status. UKCISA set out the limited circumstances in which a student’s fee status can change part-way through their course; information is available on the UKCISA website. Securing funding from the Student Loan Company does not automatically ensure that your fee status will be changed
  • if you can evidence that the University made a material error in its initial fee assessment which affected the outcome of the fee assessment
  • if you met the criteria for a different fee status at the point of registration, but this information was not reasonably available to you at the time.

If you are appealing a fee status decision at the beginning of an academic year, we will require you to supply all relevant information by the end of the third week of teaching. Otherwise any new fee status would apply from the next time that fees are due (normally the next academic year, or for Masters students, the next term/semester).

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