How British is British?

So, those of you who know me, may also know that my father is British. Luckily he also had enough foresight to register my birth with the British Consulate in Boston 28 years ago. Prior to 1982 all children of British citizens, even those abroad, were automatically citizens of the UK as well, and my birth certificate makes it very easy to prove that. It has come in quite handy, living over here in Europe, to have a British passport in addition to my American one. It gets you into many places an American passport won't. It is even good enough to convince the Dutch government that I deserve to pay the (greatly reduced) EU tuition at my university instead of the 7x higher Overseas tuition.

So, it's good to be British, right? Well, it turns out I'm not THAT British. I've been applying for PhD programs, and one of my top choices is Imperial College in London. I began emailing with one of the professors there who had a paid studentship working on a project that was very well aligned with my interests. All was going well until he discovered that in order to receive Home tuition (and not Overseas tuition) rates in the UK, being a British citizen is not enough. You apparently also have to satisfy residency requirements going back 3 years... which I don't. :( This has been incredibly frustrating and disappointing, as I was very excited to move to London and study at one of the top-rated Universities in the world. Now, however, it seems that it will be far too expensive (14,000 Pounds/year vs 3,000 Pounds/year) for me to attend.

Seems odd that I'm British enough for the Dutch government, but not for the British government, eh? Anyway, just wanted to rant and get that out there for everyone!

-Matt