Minister Harris urges people to have their say on Review of the Student Grant Scheme

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris today welcomed the start of a public consultation on the review of the Student Grant Scheme.

This Review was committed to under the current Programme for Government and announced as part of Budget 2021.

The Review’s terms of reference include examining the value of the maintenance grants and income thresholds, the availability of grants for part-time students, adjacent and non-adjacent rates, supports for postgraduates and how Ireland compares against other jurisdictions.

Speaking today, Minister Harris said:

"The Student Grant Scheme has been established since 2012 and every year, it helps over 70,000 students access third level education annually.

"However, the current system needs to be reviewed to determine if it reflects the realities of the current student experience.

"Today, we are formally launching the public consultation on our Student Grant Scheme and we want to hear from you.

"It is essential your voice is heard in this process so we can ensure this review informs the future direction of this scheme and helps access to third level.

"Everybody will have an opportunity to make a submission. I would encourage everybody who has an interest in the future direction of the SUSI scheme to take the time to participate in this consultation process and make their views known."

A Steering Committee has been put in place to provide oversight and inform the strategic direction of the review.

Membership of the Steering Group is comprised of representatives from a wide range of stakeholders within the sector and includes: Union of Students Ireland (USI); the Department of Social Protection; SOLAS; Higher Education Authority (HEA); Irish University Association (IUA); Technological Higher Education Association (THEA) and City of Dublin ETB (CDETB), among others.

The final report will be presented to Minister Harris in the autumn and will inform future considerations regarding the development of student grant policy.

The consultation will run until 16 April. See details of the consultation and how to make a submission.

Notes

Consultants Appointed to Undertake the Review

Following a tender process, Indecon International Economic Consultants were appointed as external research/policy consultants to carry out the Review. The initial meeting of the Steering Committee was held remotely on Friday 5 March in adherence with public health restrictions.

Programme for Government Commitments

The Programme for Government contains the following three commitments regarding SUSI:

“Conduct a review of the Student Grant Scheme in 2020, following the impact of COVID-19”
“Review SUSI eligibility criteria and adjacency rates”
“Address the gap in grant assistance for postgraduate students”

SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland) will produce a short paper documenting the impact of COVID-19 in the coming weeks. This will meet the requirement in respect of commitment (a).

Terms of Reference for the Review

to review the definition of “an approved” course within the current student grant scheme eligibility
to review the current income thresholds for grant support
to review the current maintenance grant which is a contribution made towards a student’s day-to-day living expenses and is paid in nine monthly instalments. The consultancy should investigate the impact of increasing the maintenance grant values whilst acknowledging the cost implications for the Exchequer
to review the current adjacent/non adjacent rates of grant and cost implications of making any changes to the present rates. The qualifying distance criterion for entitlement to the higher non-adjacent rate of grant (distance from home to the higher education institution) was changed from 24 kilometres (15 miles) to 45 kilometres (28 miles). This measure took effect for all students, both new and renewal, from the start of the 2011/2012 academic year
to identify and reflect on the current support measures in other jurisdictions and benchmark the student grant system in Ireland against other EU states
to ensure that the aforementioned SUSI eligibility criteria are explored in the context of the fact that the Programme for Government also undertakes to provide a long term sustainable funding model for higher education and research on this topic is already underway
to consider current supports available to Further Education and Training (FET) learners undertaking traineeships, apprenticeships and level 5 and 6 programmes (that is, courses that are not PLC courses) with a view to exploring whether a common cross-FET student financial support system can be incorporated into the student grant scheme
to consider current supports for postgraduate students and explore the impact of extending these supports to include maintenance grants at the same level as the current undergraduate supports
to invite contributions from stakeholders on the student grant system via a formal submission process and consider these submissions in the context of the parameters of the Programme for Government commitments and the Terms of Reference of this review
to objectively determine the real cost of attending further education and the real cost of attending higher education; and determine what proportion of the cost is met by the student grant system in Ireland
to translate the research findings from the above Terms of Reference into recommendations on future policy initiatives to support access to further and higher education