GOVERNMENT Ministers have dealt a devastating blow to a York teenager’s hopes of returning to university in the autumn.

They have refused to accept a successful appeal by Joshua Campbell against a decision to turn down his application for a student loan.

Ministers believe an independent assessor who upheld his appeal against the decision by the Student Loans Company (SLC) ‘misinterpreted the application of regulations.’ The development is just the latest twist in a lengthy saga for the 19-year-old, who has just finished his first year at Swansea University.

He was told by the SLC last November that he was not entitled to a loan because he hadn’t lived in Britain for the past three years.

Joshua was adopted as a baby from an Ethiopian orphanage by Jill and Gary Campbell, and is a British citizen.

Jill, who was awarded the MBE in 2014 for looking after sick people and running a feeding programme for homeless people living on the streets of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, said the law made it extremely difficult for any British person who had worked abroad, for example as a teacher or air worker.

In April, an independent assessor said she considered Mrs Campbell, who now lives in York city centre, was employed in Ethiopia on a genuine “temporary” basis, albeit that her successive one year contracts added up to what had in practice been a long placement, and Joshua should therefore be treated as having been ordinarily resident in the UK for the three years prior to the start of his course.

She said her recommendations would be followed unless the SLC was instructed not to do so by a Secretary of State.

Now the SLC chief executive, Steve Larney, has written to the Campbells to say Ministers feel the SLC’s original decision was correct. He said the time spent by the Campbells in Ethiopia was beyond what could be reasonably be considered a period of temporary absence.

“It is Ministers’ view that a person can only be considered temporarily absent from a place if they have previously established ordinary residence at an earlier point in time,” he said. “Mr Campbell had lived in Ethiopia hie entire life until he moved to the UK in July 2015 with his parents and began his higher education course.”

He said the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman might be able to provide a further review of the decision.

Joshua said he was ‘very disappointed’ by the decision, and by the two month delay in releasing it. He said it would be very difficult for him to return to university in the autumn, although his parents had pledged to do all they could to try to ensure he could go back.