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.

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.

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.

Just €32,000 recovered by grant body who paid the money in error

The actress best known for voicing the unseen Mrs Wolowitz on US sitcom The Big Bang Theory has died.

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.

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

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.

Almost two-thirds of around 60,000 college students expected to qualify for grants have got their first payment from Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi).

The Department of Education has been urged to scrap planned budget cuts after spending €149m less than expected this year.

More than half of the 41,000 students to submit all the necessary documents have not yet had a decision on their grant applications.

More than 50 complaints against the body overseeing the approval of student grants have been accepted by the ombudsman.

Student leaders say the true measure of any improvements in the grants system will be figures on how many applications have been decided.

The body overseeing student grants refuses to say how many people have been approved, just weeks ahead of the first college term, despite promises to remove delays.

The level of cuts to the education budget in 2014 could be anything from €44m to €100m, according to Ruairi Quinn, the education minister.

Student grant applications are significantly up on this time last year as 82,000 people have lodged claims to ensure being prioritised for payment.

Officials overseeing the centralised student grant system have been forced to extend the application deadline for those seeking the support after an embarrassing technical ‘crash’.

HARD-PRESSED families could be in line to have more input on their school’s policy on issues such as book rental schemes and uniforms thanks to a draft parents’ charter due to be published by the end of the year.

A range of improvements to the application system should help avoid the delays faced by students waiting on grants last year, claims Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi).

Slow allocation of staff, poor communication, and inadequate planning were among the main causes of delay to thousands of student grants, an independent review has reported.

More the 2,200 students are still awaiting grants as the college year ends because of problems with the Susi processing system.

Almost 15,000 people who began the application process for a student grant have cancelled their claims.

Almost 7% of likely student grant recipients have yet to finalise their claims, as a review into the failings of the new application system nears completion.

Fianna Fáil has queried how a company involved in the slow-moving Susi grants system — which have left some students still waiting for money — is now working on customer call services for the introduction of the property tax.

Student grant applicants will be given clearer information this year on the ability to report reduced incomes, after hundreds had to make appeals that could have been avoided.

Almost 7,000 college students are still awaiting a decision on their grant applications, with about 4,000 of them expected to qualify for a payment and hundreds more waiting to have their college fees paid.

Student grant clinics have been set up in colleges as thousands still await their grants to be paid or appeals to be finalised.

A review of the failings of the Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi) grant system will focus on problems around documentation, processing and payments, with around 7,000 eligible students still waiting for their fees and grants to be paid.

A student seeking a grant has had to submit her father’s death certificate three times to the agency set up to make applications faster and simpler, the Dáil has been told.

Almost one third of first-year college students seeking grants have still not had their application decided.

Stringent efforts must be made to ensure the problems with Susi this year are not repeated, writes Niall Murray

The central grants system may not be able to cope when it is extended to cover all students in the coming years, claims the head of the institute of technology sector.

The Government has had to put an extra €3m into an emergency fund to help cash-strapped students — many of whom are being forced to turn to colleges for food and rent money.

Up to 150 struggling students at Athlone Institute of Technology have been forced to accept free food boxes because they could not afford to feed themselves.

Just 13,500 of the 35,000 first-year students due a college grant will have been paid by Christmas, despite government promises of a faster, more efficient system.

About 8,000 students fewer than promised look set to get their college grants before the end-of-year deadline set three weeks ago.

An elderly Austrian couple have not gone on holiday for 17 years to stay at home and look after their adopted pigeon.