Hello All

I was wondering if any non uk nationals have succesfully got the full studentship from funding bodies such as the bbsrc and other such funding bodies which require you to prove you have been resident in the uk for three years in order to be awarded the full studentship. do you prove it by your social security number? or how did you do it. i emailed one of the fuding bodies and got a reply back suggesting that i would have a bill in my name from three years ago however I dont make a habit of keeping bills from three years previous! Suggestions would be most welcome. Just a side point to this as well im an EU citizen so how do funding bodies get away with putting in such requirments I thought being in the EU meant open access for all and no favourtism.

there is no obvious favoritism. UK citizens have to fulfil the same criteria to get the full studentship (three years residency).

if you have been registered at a UK university that should serve to "prove" your residency. if you have been working perhaps you have a work contract or your boss would write a letter stating that you have been working for them. if you have not been studying nor working what have you been doing?
if you have been renting perhaps your landlord could write a letter for you. do you have a tax self-declaration from that time? have your parents been living in the UK and do they have a work contract or something?

I'm British and I don't have a social security number so I doubt that if you try to use yours, whatever that is, it will help. I'm not particularly sure that being a citizen of a country which is a member state of the EU actually allows you to do whatever you like in other EU nations. Incidently, a lot of funding bodies are not government run and thereofre don't have any obligation to the EU, thay can distribute their funding as they please.

Do you mean National Insurance number?

If that is what you mean, then I think you can use that. You need to be a resident to have one. Although, how can they check that you have had it for 3 years?

Another thought, did you set up a British bank account 3 years ago? If so, you can ask your bank to give you a copy of an old statement (you have to pay probably).

Thanks all for the replies. When i said social security number i did mean national insurance number mix up in lingo between countries! The bank account receipt is a good suggestion however my thinking on this would be that even if i had a bank account open three years ago that would not be able to confirm that i had been resident in the uk for the past three years. Admitedly I have not actaully been in the uk continuously for the past three years so the main reason I posted was out of curiosty to see what did people actually use so that in the future I could do the same as many of the projects that I have been intending to apply for are funded by bodies which have the three year residence requirement for full stiped and so it is very frustrating!! Does anyone know is such a scenario present in other EU countries? Im aware of various research grants from bodies such as the marie curie etc that dont have such requirements.