Student grant costs run €13.5m over-budget

The cost of student grants has run €13.5m over-budget due to more people qualifying — but also because of quicker-than-expected processing of applications.

The overrun of almost 4% on the €356m budget for third-level student supports was revealed by Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan to the Dáil select education sub-committee last week.

“There were more Susi [Student Universal Support Ireland] grants than had been anticipated at the beginning of the year. The funding was found through savings in other areas,” Ms O’Sullivan said.

Instead of needing to ask the Dáil for more money, the €13.5m shortfall has been funded by €4m saved on renting prefabs and other school accommodation, €2m saved on teachers’ pay, and €7.5m freed up by the allocation of vocational training funding from the National Training Fund.

As well as grants, mostly now administered by Susi, this year’s €356.2m student support budget was to cover Susi’s running costs, a third-level access fund, bursary scheme, and costs of older scholarship schemes.

However, a Department of Education briefing paper says the €13.5m extra that was needed is mainly as a result of increases in the student contribution and the numbers qualifying for it. The charge for third-level undergraduates rose this year from €2,500 to €2,750 and will reach €3,000 in 2015.

The department pays it on behalf of all grant recipients, through Susi and other grant-awarding bodies, but students who do not receive a grant have it paid, or half-paid, if their household income is below €49,840 or €54,240, respectively.

In addition, the extra costs arose from more timely processing of student grant applications — including timing of fee payments to colleges on behalf of students — and less-than-expected savings from a Budget 2012 measure restricting postgraduate access to grants.