Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 July 2021
1266. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the estimated number of students that would be affected by changing the SUSI adjacency rates from 45km to 25km, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39875/21]
View answerThe student grant scheme, administered by SUSI, provides maintenance grants to students who meet the prescribed conditions of funding, including those relating to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means.
Student maintenance grants are payable at either the adjacent or non-adjacent rate. The adjacent rate of maintenance grant is payable in the case of students whose normal residence is 45km or less from the approved institution which he or she is attending. The non-adjacent rate of maintenance grant is payable in all other cases.
If this distance requirement for the non-adjacent rate was reduced from 45km to 25km it is estimated that 8651 students who received the adjacent rate of grant in the 2020/21 academic year would move into the non-adjacent bracket and received a higher rate of maintenance grant.
The Programme for Government contains commitments to, amongst other things, review SUSI eligibility criteria, adjacency rates and postgraduate grant supports. The review of the Student Grant Scheme is underway with over 250 submissions received via the public consultation process and over 9,000 survey responses were received through an online survey process. It is anticipated that the SUSI review will be completed later this year and will inform policy priorities for the next Estimates process and future considerations regarding the development of student grant policy. At this point I cannot pre-empt the outcome of the review to indicate when any proposed changes will come into effect.
