Students are considered as being enrolled full-time studies and are exempt from council tax payments if they meet certain criteria, listed on the city council website:
"To count as a full-time student, your course must:
- last at least 1 year
- involve at least 21 hours study per week"
https://www.gov.uk/council-tax/full-time-students
and:
"A full time course of education is one which:
- Lasts at least one academic year;
- Requires attendance for at least 24 weeks in each academic year;
- Normally requires an average of 21 hours a week study, tuition or work experience or a combination of such periods during periods of attendance."
http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/benefits-and-council-tax/council-tax/council-tax-discounts-reliefs-and-exemptions#students
Thus, whether one qualifies as a student should not be based on an arbitrary designation by the university, which could vary from one institution to another, but on the criteria set out by the council itself.
The university should provide students with a council tax exemption certificate according to the guidelines set out by the local government, instead of creating its own rules.
Here is a real-life example from the initiator of this petition:
My name is Xing Chen, and I am a PhD student at Newcastle University. As I am conducting a research-based PhD, funded by the Medical Research Council, I receive a monthly stipend of around £1,514.01 and am registered simultaneously as a part-time member of staff and a part-time student. In effect, my status is both that of a staff member and a student, for the same position.
My sole occupation is working as a PhD student. The council states that a full-time student must work at least 21 hours per week, and the course in which the student is enrolled should last at least 1 academic year. I work over double that number, and my course has lasted for 5 years. I have a student ID and a student card. There is no question that I qualify as a full-time student according to the criteria listed. Furthermore, as a non-UK citizen, I am in fact prohibited from taking a job that provides an income beyond that provided by the funding from my studies.
However, the Graduate School Office does not abide by the criteria set out by the council, fails to regard me as a full-time student for the purposes of council tax certificate exemption, and it instead defaults to the 'part-time' designation under which I am registered.
I contest that for the puposes of determining whether my studies are carried out full-time or part-time, the university should be obliged to conform to the city council's publically-issued criteria and issue a certificate that abides by these official terms, rather than by internally-adopted guidelines.