The Rate Relief (Education, Training and Leaving Care) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007

Conditions relating to education

7.—(1) The conditions referred to in regulation 6(3)(a) are that—

(a) the person concerned is an eligible student, that is to say he is undertaking a designated course; and

(b) his status as an eligible student has not terminated.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1) and subject to paragraph (3), a course is a designated course if it is—

(a) mentioned in Schedule 1;

(b) one of the following—

(i) a full-time course; or

(ii) a sandwich course;

(c) of at least one academic year’s duration;

(d) except in the case of a sandwich course, a course where persons undertaking it are normally required by the institution providing it to attend (whether at premises of the institution or elsewhere) for a period of at least 24 weeks in each year thereof and in each week that person is required to attend he is expected to undertake periods of study or tuition amounting to at least 21 hours on average; and

(e) wholly provided by a publicly-funded educational institution in the United Kingdom or by a relevant institution of higher education in the Republic of Ireland which (in either case) is maintained or assisted by recurrent grants out of public funds or provided by such an institution in conjunction with an institution outside the United Kingdom.

(3) For the purposes of this regulation a university and any constituent college or institution in the nature of a college of a university is to be regarded as publicly funded if either the university or the constituent college or institution is publicly funded.

(4) A course to which this paragraph applies is considered to be a single course for a first degree or for an equivalent qualification even though—

(a) the course may lead to another degree or qualification being conferred before the degree or equivalent qualification; and

(b) part of the course may be optional.

(5) Paragraph (4) applies to a course the standard of which is not higher than a first degree which leads to a qualification as a medical doctor, dentist, veterinary doctor, architect, landscape architect, landscape designer, landscape manager, town planner or town and country planner.

(6) A person shall be regarded for the purposes of paragraph (1) as undertaking a designated course during the period in which he is a gap year student.

(7) A person’s status as an eligible student terminates—

(a) at the end of the academic year in which the student completes the designated course;

(b) when the student withdraws from his designated course and he is not a transfer student; or

(c) when the student abandons or is expelled from his designated course.