A TRAINEE nurse working 12 and a half hour shifts is being forced to fork out for travel and living costs because she has been ruled ineligible for student funding.

Glory Omoaka has also been denied the £500 bonus for health care workers which has been handed out by the Scottish Government for working through the pandemic.

Omoaka, who lives in Glasgow with her 15-year-old daughter, managed to get her nursing degree fees paid after a battle but is still being refused the SAAS funding given to others as she has been assessed as a foreign student despite living here since 2007.

It means she has no educational maintenance grant and her expenses for travel to her placements are not paid.

Now in the second year of her three-year course at Stirling University, her unpaid placements have so far been in the Falkirk area and have involved lengthy journeys by bus and train on top of the long shifts.

“I’m having a lot of difficulty,” she told the Sunday National. “It’s very hard to manage financially – I’m owing everywhere.

“I am supposed to start my shifts at 7am and to get there I have to get a bus, train, then another bus so it costs a lot of money. I’m getting up at 4am and I don’t finish my shift until half seven so I don’t get home until 10 or half 10. The only thing that keeps me going is because I really want to do this.”

Originally from Nigeria, Omoaka, 47, has not yet been granted indefinite leave to remain by the Home Office and has to reapply for permission to stay every two and a half years. Her limited leave to remain was granted because she is a parent to a child who has lived here for more than seven years.

Before gaining status Omoaka had been living in a B&B, surviving on £50 per week. Her asylum claim was refused because, though she came to the UK seeking safety, she did not think she would be eligible and the delay in her application affected her claim.

Omoaka, backed by JustRight Scotland, is now calling for SAAS funding to be made available to everyone like her who has been granted leave to remain here – even if it is not indefinite.

She pointed out that although her status was determined by the Home Office, the Scottish Government has power over education and could change the policy.

“There are very few of us that this affects and I see no reason why they cannot take a look at it,” she said. “We have left the EU but the Scottish Government has decided they will pay the EU students’ fees for one year more so why not help us?”

Omoaka said that if the rules are not changed soon before the May election it will be too late for her to get funding for her third year – meaning that if she is forced to drop out, the money already spent on her training will be wasted.

“I know I am doing this to better my life in future but I am under enormous stress,” she said.

She is now leading some community research through Just Citizens to make the case for a fairer version of citizenship. A JustRight Scotland project, Just Citizens is a 12-strong panel of migrants who have made their home in Scotland.

SABIR Zazai, chief executive of the Scottish Refugee Council said: “People like Glory are working hard to rebuild their lives and put down roots in Scotland. Studying, gaining qualifications and pursuing ambitions and careers are a major part of this.

“We believe people with leave to remain, including those with discretionary leave, are all New Scots, and they should have the same access to SAAS funding as others living here. Better integration outcomes are reached when people are afforded rights equally.

“For those who are new to Scotland, professional qualifications gained in their home countries are often not recognised in the UK or Scotland, requiring them to re-train or obtain new qualifications.

“Glory, and so many people like her, have so much to contribute and shouldn’t face obstacle after obstacle in their attempts to do so.”

Scottish Greens councillor and lead candidate for Glasgow Kim Long added: “We know there are many young people like Glory who live in Scotland, have been to school here, and dream of studying like all their peers – but they can’t, because they are not eligible for SAAS funding due to their immigration status.

“This is a preventable cruelty, and unlike some issues stemming from the UK’s brutal immigration system, it is one that is within the Scottish Government’s power to fix right now.

“SAAS must extend its funding criteria to stop holding back ... people from following their dreams.”

A SPOKESPERSON for SAAS said: “Generally, students require indefinite leave to remain to be considered eligible to apply for student support.

“This is why we have been engaging with the Home Office to try and understand more about the immigration decision-making process and thereby discover if there is any possible solution.

“The student may wish to know that the minister recently announced additional money would be available for colleges and universities to support students via their Discretionary Funds.

“These are funds specifically for students incurring financial hardship and eligibility has now been extended to include all students, including those not considered eligible for any support from SAAS on residency grounds. She should contact her university about available support from their fund, as soon as possible.”

In order to qualify for SAAS funding under the current rules, applicants need to have indefinite leave to remain or have refugees status, be an asylum applicant or be under the age of 18 with leave to remain and have lived in the UK for seven continuous years or have leave to remain and be between 18-25 and have lived in the UK continuously for half their life.

MANY migrants who, like Omoaka, have lived in Scotland for years cannot afford to attend college or university because they are barred from accessing student finance, according to Andrew Sirel, co-founder of JustRight Scotland which hosts the Just Citizens project.

He said this included young people who had gone right through secondary school but could not go on to further education with their friends because they don’t have the “right immigration status”.

“The impact of the ‘Hostile Environment’ immigration system is well-known and Home Office decision making can be erratic and, at worst, cruel, and it is hard to get permission to live in this country,” he said.

“But we believe Scotland can take action to mitigate against these problems, creating rules that treat people as citizens, wherever they come from.

“In Scotland we say we have a strong commitment to making sure higher education is accessible to all who live here but currently, the rules around educational funding block many migrants with permission to live in the UK from accessing student finance, making attending college or university totally unaffordable,” he said.

“We’re not talking about international students coming to Scotland specifically to study, but those already resident in Scotland. I work with young people – brought here as children who have permission to live here and who receive their whole secondary school education here – but who can’t move on to college or university with their peers because they don’t have the ‘right immigration status’.

“I have also worked with adults who are raising families here, with British children, and want to become nurses or teachers but can’t for the same reason. This is not fair.
“It prevents them fulfilling their potential or their dreams – simply because of what is written in their Home Office letter. 

"Just Citizens is calling for the rules around funding can be opened up to allow many more Scottish residents to access education so as a country, we do not exclude this section of our society who offer so much."

You can find out more about Just Citizens here: justcitizens.scot