Under the residency requirement of the Student Grant Scheme, a student must have been resident in Ireland for at least 3 of the 5 years immediately prior to an approved course commencing in an approved institution in order to qualify for a grant. However, a student may qualify for a grant, having met the residency requirement during the course of their studies.
The main criteria of the Free Fees Initiative is that students must be first-time undergraduates, hold inter alia EU/EEA/Swiss nationality in their own right, and have been ordinarily resident in an EU/EEA/Swiss state for at least three of the five years preceding their entry to an approved third level course. Where students do not qualify for free fees they must pay the appropriate fee, as determined by their third level institution. While the issue of fee rates payable by students is a matter for the higher education institutions I have requested that the Higher Education Authority liaise with the sector in order to establish and report on the practices currently operated by individual institutions and to seek to agree a common approach across the sector. This review is also intended to examine the issue of Irish students who have been living abroad and intend returning to Ireland to study at third level. It is hoped that, following this review, revised fee arrangements which will have clear and consistent criteria can be agreed, and will be in place for the next academic year.
