Tax reliefs worth millions of euro are not being claimed by students or their families for third-level fees, a college support service estimates.

More than €2.8m in overpayments of grants for college students were outstanding at the end of 2016.

The Union of Students in Ireland is calling for the student grant to be restored to pre-2011 levels and a reduction in college fees.

More than 18,000 students hoping to start college next month have been approved for financial assistance, to aid likely costs. 

Only two asylum seekers qualified last year for third-level grant support under a Government scheme designed to assist young people in the protection system.

Rising employment and income levels have seen grant applications drop, despite funding being available again for postgraduate students this year.

Alternative routes to training and careers can no longer be a Cinderella service, writes Education Correspondent Niall Murray

Almost 70,000 students have received grants in the first two months of starting back to college.

TDs and Senators will not begin considering where the €1bn needed to secure the future of the third-level education system should come from until next month at the earliest.

The Irish Refugee Council is seeking changes to a scheme set up to provide financial support to asylum seekers attending college after just two people benefited last year.

Around 15,000 Leaving Certificate students were already approved for college grants this year before the main business of courses being offered began today, writes Niall Murray of the Irish Examiner.

Around 15,000 Leaving Certificate students were already approved for college grants this year before the main business of courses being offered began today.

More than 1,200 students mistakenly paid €3,000 each in grants were able to keep the money after authorities admitted there was no hope of getting it back.

Students could have earlier decisions on applications for college grants this year as a result of improvements to the €375m scheme.

LEAVING Cert students around the country are currently in the middle of the oral and practical exams that precede the main event in June. With so much attention on these, it would be easy to let paperwork slide, writes Gráinne McGuinness

Almost 60,000 students have been paid their grants or had their €3,000 college fees paid as Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi) continues to improve its processes.

Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan will need extra funds by the year end to cater for more students qualifying for college grants and more special needs’ supports in schools.

Dozens of asylum seekers can apply next week for student grants and to be exempt from international college fees that would make higher education here impossible for them.

Almost 40,000 people have accepted college places over the last week, ahead of the next round of offers on Thursday.

Rushing public service reforms, or doing so without key data, poses a risk to effective change of delivery, according to an assessment of lessons from the early difficulties of a centralised student grants body.

The withdrawal of grants for postgraduate studies poses a concerning risk for hard-up students’ chances to progress, says the head of the Higher Education Authority (HEA).

Problems finding or affording accommodation could be worsened by growing numbers of students travelling farther to college.

Students should get grants quicker than previous years this autumn, and should also have an extra payment before Christmas.

Dozens of asylum seekers could be given the chance of a third-level education by the removal of annual fees upward of €15,000 a year after Government backing for a plan to support them.

Parents pay out an average of €453 a month to support each child through college, with more students forced to live at home because of rising costs.

Midnight is the deadline for third-level student grant applications.

The student grants system that caused “chaos” when set up four years ago has lost so much money it would risk being closed down if it was a private company, the chair of a Dáil group has claimed.

Bad planning, outsourcing core services with no contract, and inadequate staffing contributed to student grants agency SUSI’s disastrous first year of operations that cost €5.9m — more than three times its budget.

Asylum-seeker students may soon get a chance at a third-level education that financial barriers have previously blocked most from receiving, Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan has said.

Dozens of students are still awaiting a decision on college grants, having failed to satisfy the awarding body they are estranged from their parents.

The third-level grants body Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi) has made the first payments to 43,000 applicants, 4,000 more than this time last year.

Future primary teachers have called for better checks on standards of residential Irish language courses they must spend thousands of euro to attend.

More than 54,500 people have applied for grants for the first time as the countdown to Leaving Certificate results nears an end.

Rising rents are one of the biggest factors in bringing the living costs associated with attending college to over €8,000, according to compilers of a student living guide.

Delays filing tax returns and provision of incorrect personal information are slowing grant applications for thousands of students.

The announcement of €35m for schools to carry out repairs over the summer — right before voting — has been described by Fianna Fáil as electioneering by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn.

A married woman has been told her college grant application has to be assessed on the income of her parents who she no longer lives with.