Gary Gannon
Question:113. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the status of the SUSI review. [25283/22]
View answerThursday, 19 May 2022
Questions (113)
Written answers
I launched the review of the Student Grant Scheme on 4 May. The review was carried out by Indecon Economic Consultants, under the strategic direction of a steering group chaired by my Department. The review involved wide stakeholder engagement, a substantial student consultation as well as novel research on SUSI data and deprivation index data.
The report makes a number of recommendations on issues including the rates of grant, income thresholds, eligibility criteria, complexity of the grant system, part-time learning and postgraduate support.
My Department’s response to the report was set out in Funding the Future, the new funding and reform framework for higher education, which identifies the costs of education as one of my core priorities to address alongside core funding for higher education.
As set out in that framework, in advance of the Estimates process each year, my Department will publish a costs of education paper. This will outline the potential options and impacts of measures to address the costs of education, including changes to the student grant scheme and student contributions. This should inform public debate, and consideration in the Houses, in the same way that the Tax Strategy papers and options laid out by the Department of Social Protection do, in the run up to the Budget.
Informed by those considerations, I am committed to implementing the recommendations of the review in a phased way, in the context of successive annual Estimates processes, alongside other measures to address cost was a barrier to education.