Apart from Scottish students at Scottish universities, there are some students whose courses are considered too important to the rest of us for them to have to hack up anything themselves. Basically, that means medics of various rubber-gloved and needled persuasions.

UK and EU students on any of the following courses pay zilch, fee-wise:

• Chiropody (including podiatry)
• Dental hygiene
• Dental therapy
• Dietetics
• Midwifery
• Most nursing courses
• Occupational Therapy
• Orthoptics
• Physiotherapy
• Prosthetics and orthotics
• Radiography
• Speech and language therapy

See www.nhsstudentgrants.co.uk for more details on the NHS bursaries, which usually cover the fees for the medical courses listed above. Also, undergraduate medical and dental students have to cover their own tuition fees for the first four years of their courses, but should qualify for a bursary after that. You're still elegible for an NHS bursary even if you switch courses - provided you're not swapping Nursing for Art History - that's to say you have to still be on an NHS course.  

It’s possible to escape paying fees for one year only if you’re studying abroad as part of the Erasmus scheme.

Students doing a placement year or year abroad as part of their course should only have to pay a reduced fee, usually half of the usual annual fee. Check with the university for more details of exactly what they charge.

• All the small print: finance for real people
• What if I want to change my course or university?

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