With that in mind, if all went well with the EEA, would she then still be classed as an international student or a UK student? I'd imagine it wouldn't change and she would still be recognised as an international student as before. Is that correct?
The criteria to qualify for home/EU fees is:
- she has been resident in the UK or EU for 3 years prior to the start of the course date
AND
- she is a UK or EU citizen OR she is free from UK immigration restrictions (she has permanent residence in the UK)
So, to meet the first requirement, she must have lived in the UK or EU for 3 years, but for the second requirement, she won't be free from UK immigration restrictions until she has been in the UK for 5 years... so she may find she can't qualify for home fees for 5 years.
Having said that, the difference between home fees and international fees isn't all that great anymore (£9,000 for UK fees, around £12,000 for international fees), so it might be that she decides to just pay the international fees anyway instead of waiting for 5 years.