Students pursuing postgraduate courses at approved colleges in Northern Ireland can apply for grants in respect of their fees and maintenance under the higher education grants scheme. The student support schemes were extended, with effect from the 1996-97 academic year, to provide maintenance grants to students following approved full-time undergraduate courses of at least two years duration in another EU member state. However, due to limited resources there is no provision under the current student support schemes for funding for postgraduate studies outside of Ireland. There are a number of scholarships available to Irish students pursuing postgraduate studies abroad.
On the question of providing postgraduate places, there were some 11,000 full-time postgraduate students in State funded third-level institutions in the 1995-96 academic year. I accept that view of the Steering Committee on the Future Development of Higher Education that a dynamic postgraduate element is critical to the quality of a university to complement and support undergraduate work and research efforts. Whereas it may, under certain circumstances, be cheaper to provide student support for postgraduate students studying abroad, such an approach in itself would not be desirable as an alternative to the development of postgraduate facilities in our own third level institutions.
