Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 1 December 2004
232 Mr. Kelleher asked the Minister for Education and Science the reason a higher education grant was not awarded to a person (details supplied) in County Limerick; if she will address the points raised by this person and his parent; her views on whether the regulations governing the grant assessment and payment are wholly unfair in this case; and if a grant will be awarded to this person. [31829/04]
View answerThe higher education grants scheme operates under the Local Authorities (Higher Education Grants) Acts 1968 to 1992. These Acts define mature students to mean persons "of not less than 23 years of age, or such other age as may stand specified for the time being in regulations made by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Finance, who have secured places in approved institutions and have reached that age on the first day of January, or such other date as may be prescribed from time to time by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Finance, in the year of entry to such institutions".
Mature students are categorised as either independent mature students or mature students dependent on parents. An independent mature student is defined to mean a mature student who was not ordinarily resident at home with his or her parents from the October preceding their entry to an approved course. Independent mature students are assessed without reference to either their parents' income or address.
When assessing the means of students other than independent mature students, the means test provision of the scheme specifies that the students' means and those of their parents or guardians must be below a prescribed limit. This provision requires that parental income be taken into account irrespective of the individual circumstances in any case where the student is not an independent mature student.
Generally speaking, candidates continue to be assessed under the terms and conditions of the scheme appropriate to their year of entry. Accordingly, candidates who were not classified as independent mature students at the time of entry to an approved course may not generally be assessed as such for the duration of their courses.
There is, however, provision under the terms of the schemes for candidates who are re-entering as mature students, following a break in study of at least one year, to pursue or complete an approved course for the first time. Such candidates may be assessed under the terms of the scheme appropriate to the year in which they re-enter. Under this provision, candidates who were not independent mature students at the time of entry to an approved course may be re-classified as independent mature students for the purpose of completing a course or commencing a subsequent course, for example, a postgraduate course.
Unless students meet the prescribed age requirement at the time of entry or re-entry to an approved course, they may not be assessed as an independent mature student under the terms of the scheme. I understand that the candidate to whom the Deputy refers entered an approved course for the purposes of the higher education grant scheme for the first time in the 2002-03 academic year when he entered year three of an undergraduate degree in manufacturing engineering at the University of Limerick. He was accordingly, assessed with reference to the terms and conditions of the 2002 higher education grant scheme. I understand that he completed his degree course in the 2003-04 academic year and that in the current academic year 2004-05 he commenced a postgraduate course, the graduate diploma in education (technology), without having a break in studies. As he was not 23 years of age on 1 January of the year of entry to an approved course, he is ineligible to be assessed as a mature independent student.
The Deputy will appreciate that the terms of the schemes are of general application and it is not open to me to make exceptions in individual cases. It is not proposed, in the foreseeable future, to change the current position in regard to the assessment of mature students.
