Maintenance Grants

If you think you are eligible for the student grant, you should apply for it as soon as possible.

The application process for 2011-12 is now open. You do not have to wait until you receive an offer of a place or enroll in college. Only when your application has been completed in full and submitted to the grant-awarding authority can your eligibility be determined.

Maintenance Grant Information 2011/12

The student grant is one of the main sources of financial help available from the Irish State for students in full-time Post Leaving Certificate Courses (PLCs) and full-time higher education undergraduate/postgraduate courses. Support is available to eligible students in most colleges in Ireland as well as eligible Irish students in many colleges in Northern Ireland, the UK and other EU States. For eligible students, the grant is there to help with the various costs of participating in further or higher education. Students on part-time courses, access or foundation courses (in higher education institutions) and short courses are not eligible to apply for a student grant.

Family and/or personal income is a key factor that will be assessed when you apply for a student grant but there are also some other conditions. Studentfinance.ie can help you to assess whether you are eligible and guide you in starting the process. In all cases, the official decision on eligibility is of course made by the grant-awarding bodies.

SUMMARY OF CHANGES TO STUDENT GRANT AS A RESULT OF BUDGET 2011

Three measures were announced in Budget 2011 relating to the student grant schemes:

A: Reduction in overall rates of grant

• A reduction of 4% is to be applied to the rates of all student grants.
• This reduction applies to all existing grant holders and to new grant holders alike.
• The implementation date is January 2011.

B: Qualifying distance criterion for non-adjacent rate of grant

• The qualifying distance criterion for entitlement to the higher non-adjacent rate of grant (distance from home to the higher education institution) has been changed from 15 miles (24 kilometres) to 45 kilometres.
• This measure applies to all students.
• The implementation date is the start of the 2011-2012 academic year.

C: Automatic entitlement of mature students to non-adjacent rate of grant.

• The automatic entitlement of mature students to the higher non-adjacent rate of payment has been removed.
• The implementation date is the start of the 2011-2012 academic year.

Where to Apply

You should apply for a student grant to a local authority or Vocational Education Committee (VEC) in your home area, not the area where the college is located.

You should apply to the Vocational Education Committee in your home area if you have applied for or will be attending an approved course in one of the following institutions in the 2011/12 academic year:

• an approved Post-Leaving Certificate (PLC) centre;
• an Institute of Technology.

You should apply to the local authority in your home area if you have applied for or will be attending an approved course in one of the following institutions in the 2011/12 academic year:

• a university;
• a prescribed educational institution in Ireland (for example a college of education);
• an approved undergraduate course in an approved educational institution in the EU;
• an approved postgraduate course in an approved educational institution in Northern Ireland.

Completing a Student Grant Application

Online application

For the 2011-12 academic year, an online Student Grant Application Form is available for 35 grant awarding authorities.

If you are applying for a student grant to one of the grant-awarding authorities involved, you may complete an online application. These grant awarding-authorities are:

VECs Online

Local Authorities On-Line

Online application is the quickest and most efficient way to apply for a student grant to the participating grant-awarding authorities. To make an online application you should log onto www.studentfinance.ie choose student grant from the tabs listed across the top of the screen (2^nd tab from the left), scroll down to the bottom of the screen and choose “Proceed to Online Student Grant Application”.

However, these authorities will also accept applications completed and submitted in hard copy (paper copy). You can download the application form by choosing “Download the Student Grant Application Form” instead.

If the grant-awarding authority in your area is not listed above you must submit a completed hard copy (paper copy) which you can download as per the instructions above. You may also get a copy of this form from the awarding authority in your area.

NB: The closing date for receipt of applications for the Maintenance Grant Scheme is 31^st August 2011