Students’ union says thousands will be left out of loan scheme
The scheme, announced yesterday by Bank of Ireland for postgraduates at all state-funded colleges, follows the withdrawal of maintenance grants from this year for all new postgraduate students.
It will cover course fees and allow reduced interest-only repayments during the study period, with capital repayments to begin three months after completion.
However, the USI says the fact that loan applications will be decided on students’ own credit history means thousands will be refused as students frequently use overdraft facilities or are still struggling with loans to help them through their undergraduate degrees.
The union complained last week that a Bank of Ireland loan scheme for undergraduate student fees of €2,250 at a number of colleges would give the Government leverage to increase fees. However, the new scheme is different as the Department of Education and National Treasury Management Agency have been involved in its development.
John Logue, the president of the USI, said Education Minister Ruairi Quinn had already made it all but impossible for thousands to attain a postgraduate qualifications when he removed the maintenance grant for new postgraduate students.
“Now the minister announces this scheme as if it were an adequate substitute for government grants, but this is patently a scheme that will only help students who are already in a comfortable financial stage,” he said.
“Any students with a poor credit history, those who have the most acute need for a maintenance grant, will be denied a loan and thus denied the opportunity to study at a postgraduate level.”
A Bank of Ireland spokesperson said it had no comment on the USI statement, except to say the bank was pleased to be at the forefront in providing meaningful and vital finance to Ireland’s students.
As well as loans to cover course fees, students who previously received a grant during their primary degrees can apply for a maintenance loan of up to €2,000.
In a joint statement with Bank of Ireland, Mr Quinn said his officials worked closely with the bank and the NTMA on the scheme and he hoped it would mean that students concerned about meeting the costs of postgraduate studies would be able to access the loans.
The scheme could be seen as a precursor to a state-backed student loan scheme, which has been put forward as a way of introducing student tuition fees and boosting ailing third-level college budgets.
However, Mr Quinn has said he does not favour such a system, which is one of a number of options being weighed up by the Higher Education Authority in a funding report likely to come down in favour of much higher student fees.
