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Leung v Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, Court of Appeal - Administrative Court, July 05, 2002, [2002] EWHC 1358 (Admin)



Case No: CO/4939/2001
NEUTRAL CITATION NUMBER: [2002] EWHC 1358 (Admin)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEENS BENCH DIVISION
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand,
London, WC2A 2LL

Friday 5 July 2002
B e f o r e :

THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE SILBER

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(Transcript of the Handed Down Judgment of
Smith Bernal Reporting Limited, 190 Fleet Street
London EC4A 2AG
Tel No: 020 7421 4040, Fax No: 020 7831 8838
Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)
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Mr. Richard McManus QC and Mr. Adam Solomon (instructed by Hugh Cartwright and Amin for the Claimant)
Mr. Timothy Ward (instructed by Mills & Reeve of Cambridge for the Defendant)

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Judgment
As Approved by the Court

Crown Copyright ©




Mr Justice Silber:

Introduction

Wing Kew Leung ("the claimant") challenges the decision of Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine ("the college") to classify him as an overseas student, rather than as a home student, for the purpose of the Education (Fees and Awards) Regulations 1997 ("the Regulations"). The significance of that classification is that the Regulations permit certain educational institutions, including the college, to charge higher fees for those students, who have been classified as overseas students rather than home students under the Regulations. Those who are regarded as home students for fee charging purposes include those who are settled in the United Kingdom and who also meet the residence conditions in Paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 of the Regulations.

A condition in Paragraph 9 of the Schedule of the Regulations, which is of central and crucial significance in determining the status of the claimant in this case, provides that a person meets the residence conditions in Paragraph 9 which, with my emphasis added, provides that:-

"(b) [the student's] residence in the United Kingdom.. has not during any part of [the three year period preceding the relevant date].. been wholly or mainly for the purpose of receiving full-time education".

The Regulations make it clear that "the relevant date" for determining a student's status for classification of the fee purposes is 1 September, 1 January or 1 April, closest to the beginning of the first term of the student's course (Regulation 4(6)). In the case of the claimant, it is common ground between the parties that first, the relevant date for determining his status was 1 September 2000 and second, that his fee paying classification for the duration of his course was settled once and for all by the determination of his status as on that date. Mr. McManus QC, who appears with Mr. Adam Solomon for the claimant, says that if the claimant had been classified as a home student rather than as an overseas student, he would have saved about £9,000 in each year of his course at the college. In order to understand the rival submissions, it is necessary now to set out in outline some of the relevant chronology leading up to the making of this application.

The Chronology

The claimant was born in Hong Kong in December 1980. He, together with the rest of his family, was granted British citizenship in May 1995, which was the year when his parents left the United Kingdom where they had worked since 1972 in order to return to Hong Kong. They retained their property in London at 33 College Road, Wembley, which was occupied by the claimant's aunt. The parents of the claimant retained contact with the United Kingdom and they visited this country every summer. The claimant's older brother Yu Kew Leung ("Yu") left Hong Kong to live in the United Kingdom in August 1990 and in May 1995, he became permanently settled in this country.

In August 1995, when the claimant was fourteen, he left Hong Kong where he had previously been at school to come to the United Kingdom, where he enrolled in September 1995 at Merchant Taylor's School in Northwood as a boarder. Shortly after the claimant arrived in this country, his parents purchased a house in Northwood ("the Northwood house"), which was occupied by Yu, the claimant and his aunt, who was also the claimant's guardian. Although he lived very close to Merchant Taylor's School, he has explained that he was a boarder there because his parents were keen for him to experience communal life.
In 1996, Yu commenced a three-year Biochemistry degree course at the college and he was class...
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