Student grant system ‘may not be able to cope’

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.

With up to 10,000 students not yet paid their grants by Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi), out of around 35,000 expected to be eligible, colleges and student unions have been giving out rent and food money since before Christmas.

Susi is run by City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee and is only handling applications from first-time college students this year. It will take over all grants from the 66 councils and VECs over the next three years, but Dundalk Institute of Technology president Denis Cummins questioned its ability to manage the expanded role.

“For this year, a lot of it is done and dusted because the big intake obviously is in September in that first semester. As a system, I think we have concerns about the capacity of Susi to cope,” said Mr Cummins, who chairs Institutes of Technology Ireland.

“If, in this first year when they are only dealing with one cohort of students, they had issues around capacity, how is that going to ramp up in future years? I think there’s a lot of work to be done to regain confidence in the system,” Mr Cummins told RTÉ News.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has approved an extra €3m for the Student Assistance Fund, on top of the previously allocated €8m in response to unprecedented demand.

The fund is available through colleges to assist students in financial difficulty, but delays in grant payments from Susi have contributed to huge pressures in various colleges.

With around 1,500 students expected to get their first payment from Susi this week, around 25,000 applicants will have been paid.

But, although Susi says that almost 23,000 have not sent in all or any of the documents needed, applicants are still complaining that submitted paperwork is not being received. Launching the Susi service in June, Mr Quinn said it would make the application process quicker and smoother for students.

But callers to RTÉ’s Liveline radio programme spoke yesterday about repeated requests for documents already submitted, hours waiting to get through to the Susi telephone helpline and being told they were approved for the wrong grant rates. The helpdesk and checking of documents have been out-sourced by Susi to the private company Abtran in Cork.

An external review of Susi’s operation of the grants system is due to be carried out when the backlog of applications is cleared.

Mr Cummins said the Student Assistance Fund is a help for students in extreme hardship but it is not capable of dealing with the system-wide problems in the grants system.

“There are some examples of students dropping out and leaving courses. We have examples of students in one college who were found sleeping in a car in the car park. In my own institution, students have asked in the restaurant what they can get for €2 because that’s all they have to spend,” he said.

“I checked last evening in my own institution and up to one-quarter of the students we would expect to get grants still haven’t received them.”

Grant grief

Here’s what some grant applicants and others have been saying on Twitter:

*@DESAPPOINTMENT: I can’t be the only one still awaiting a #SUSI grant, can I? :’ (

*@skeating_: THANK YOU GRANT GODS. It’s about time #susi #grant

*@Glenna_lynch: Just for once could someone,SOMEONE be responsible for the fiasco of the student grants? #susi An EU country 2013? The“smart” econ?

*@wendylyon: ...I mean seriously, this is a hames that Fianna Fáil couldn’t even have dreamed of. #susi

*@Dermot8624: #susi Put susi in charge of paying the lawyers who are owed money for the #tribunals. God knows when they will be paid-soon enough

*@KBoland12: Here’s an idea, let’s withhold Quinn’s wages until this mess gets sorted out. #SUSI

*@siobhanhealy3: SUSI, you are an absolute joke!!!! stupid grant scheme!!!!! #grrrrrrrr