Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 1 June 2022
179. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the estimated cost of extending an adjacent maintenance grant to part-time students at undergraduate and postgraduate level; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28501/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraDuring the 2020/2021 academic year,(the latest year that data is available) statistics from the Higher Education Authority show that there were 49,658 students studying at all levels in our publicly funded institutions on a part time basis.
The costs of extending the SUSI grant scheme to these part time students would depend on an assessment to see if they meet the prescribed conditions of funding, including those which relate to course mode, nationality, residency, previous academic attainment (progression) and means. As they have not been assessed under the SUSI scheme, we do not know how many of these students would be eligible to receive SUSI grant funding if they were eligible to apply.
It is also the case that we would not have details on the distance that these part time students reside from their college to specifically give a cost estimate of extending the adjacent maintenance grant rate to part time students.
However the following will give you an indication of estimated costs of extending the special adjacent maintenance rate of the SUSI scheme to part time students:
- If 10,000 of these students were deemed eligible for the 2022/23 adjacent special maintenance rate (€2,575), we would estimate a cost of €25.75m.
- If 20,000 of these students were deemed eligible, we would estimate a cost of €51.5m.
- If 30,000 of these students were deemed eligible, we would estimate a cost of €77.25m.
- If all 49,658 of these students were deemed eligible, we would estimate a cost of €127.87m
These estimates do not include an estimation of extending funding to part time students under the free fees initiative which would be an additional cost to the exchequer.
