Hi culka11,
Ahhh..that makes sense. Thanks for providing the wording. You certainly seem to meet the requirements.
Yes, it is usually up to the universities I believe. Research councils award funding directly to universities (rarely directly to indivduals-unless they are post-doc fellowships). So its not much use talking to them. So your best bet will be to convince the person advertising the funding.I would say keep e-mailing the positions you want and keep asking until you get an answer
. Usually its them and the student office that need to sort it out. If the funding extends beyond the expiry of the card, usually they may review your funding on a yearly basis-which is up to them to decide unfortunately
Also, depending on the university, I think you can change your funding status during studies once you get PR. I had a fellow PhD colleague whose status changed from International to ILR during the PhD and his funding became that of a local student. Maybe you can start and once you get PR you may have access to better funding opportunities. Or just wait for PR-(i know, easier said than done when time is valuable).
One last thing, of course depending on your area of specialisation, you will have easier time applying for funding. From a Non-EU PhD student's perspective, I know for a fact that EPSRC funding for non-local students is far easier to obtain than ESRC and AHRC funding where demand is highest from local students.
All the best! Hope all goes well for you.