Postgraduate grants cut will cost a fortune in welfare
I am a student wishing to partake in a masters of social work programme in UCC. Until June of this year I was eligible for payment of tuition fees and a maintenance grant that would have enabled me to participate in this course. But recent changes imposed by the HEA now preclude me from attending this course as I have failed to meet the relevant application criteria on the grounds that I have been absent from university for one year.
The HEA will no longer pay fees and grants to those absent from third-level full-time education for no less than three consecutive years. Therefore I am no longer entitled to tuition fees, which total €14,000, or a maintenance grant, despite the fact that I received a grant for my previous four years of college.