‘Grants no longer enough to help students’: College dropout rate rising

Student grants may no longer be enough to help keep financially strained young people in college, according to the Higher Education Authority.

Its latest analysis of dropout rates shows that more than one in six students who began college in 2010 were no longer at the same institution by the second year of their course, a slightly higher proportion than three years earlier, as reported in the Irish Examiner yesterday.

It also reveals increasing numbers of third-level students are receiving a state grant, up from 32% who started college in 2007 to 37% in 2010. But instead of supporting them to stay in college, the proportion of institute of technology students with a grant who drop out is shown to be higher than that of non-recipients, a reversal of the situation three years previous.

“This result may suggest that student financial hardship is increasing and that for those in receipt of a grant, this monetary benefit is not having the same impact as it did four years ago,” said the report.

HEA chief executive Tom Boland yesterday said that educational disadvantage needs to be tackled from pre-school levels, and poor career guidance is also a factor, but personal financial difficulties are also contributing to the slight rise in overall dropout rates.

Union of Students in Ireland president Laura Harmon said the report’s findings are consistent with its arguments over many years that the falling value of grants puts more pressure on students to make ends meet.

“Food, transport, and accommodation prices have all risen in recent years, whilst the value of the grant has fallen in cash terms against inflation,” she said.

“We said many times that families and students were approaching a breaking point, and it’s clear from this report that that point has long been reached. A review of the effectiveness of current grant levels needs to be quickly undertaken.”

Student grants have been cut by 11.5% since 2010, meaning €765 a year less for those who qualify for the top rate — now below €6,000 annually — if they come from homes earning less than €22,700.

In addition, the rate of grant paid to thousands of students has been affected by an increase in the distance they must live from college to qualify for a higher ‘non-adjacent’ payment, a move that has saved the Department of Education around €50m a year.

Researchers told a third-level access conference last year that the change may be disadvantaging students who live further from colleges.

An online survey of parents published by Bank of Ireland Life yesterday found 55% have yet to start saving for their children’s third-level education, but 43% planned to use savings for college costs, 23% will avail of grants, one in five will use day-to-day money and 15% plan to take out loans.

Almost two-thirds of respondents to the same research last year had financial challenges putting children through school, but that was down to 58% among 1,400 parents who took part this year.

USI also warned of finance-related college dropouts rising more as a crisis in student accommodation is on track to get far worse because of rental accommodation shortages concentrated in Dublin and college towns. The HEA report found highest dropout rates among male students, college entrants with lower Leaving Certificate points, and those who started courses linked to the construction industry.