COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
Monday, December 12, 2011
QUESTION NO. 18
QUESTION: Councillor D. Looney
To ask the Manager to report on the numbers of student maintenance grants applied for up until the November 30th deadline; to provide details on the numbers of grant applications received and processed and the types of grants approved; to provide comparative data with previous years in the County; to outline the changes made for this academic year; and to provide an update to my question in June of this year to the planned changes for 2012-2013 and beyond in terms of redeployment of staff and resources?
REPLY:
South Dublin County Council received a total of 1823 applications for Higher Education Grants in the 2010/2011 academic year. To date (w/e 2nd December 2011 ) 2149 applications have been received for the 2011/2012 academic year. Breakdown is as follows:
Application Statistics
Full year 2010/2011
| New | Renewals | Forwarded to other LA | Ineligible |
| 884 | 939 | 147 | 398 |
· A total of 1267 students were awarded a Grant
2011/2012 (to 2/12/2011)
| New | Renewals | Forwarded to other LA | Ineligible |
| 1268 | 881 | 585 | 117 |
· A total of 818 students were awarded a Grant
Financial Position
Sept 2010 – 2nd December 2010
| 1st Main | 3rd d Main | Special Main | Fees | Total |
| 406,477 | 11,459 | 131,150 | 450,481 | 999,567 |
Sep 2011 – 2nd December 2011
| 1st Main | 3rd d Main | Special Main | Fees | Total |
| 260,117 | 1,267 | 84,344 | 720,588 | 1,066,316 |
The reduction in the value of maintenance awards is reflective of the changes for eligibility for the non – adjacent rate.
Student Support Act / Scheme 2011
Student Support Act 2011 was signed into law on 2nd February 2011. Under its terms, four types of student grant were replaced by one. A detailed report on the new Scheme / Act was provided to the July 2011 Council meeting but the primary changes applicable from September 2011 included:
Period of eligibility and progression
Undergraduate: Limits on the number of years for which undergraduate courses may be funded was introduced and are outlined in paragraph 14(10)(b) of the Scheme . Grant aid is limited to a maximum of four years in total for a course at Level 8 of the framework of qualifications, except for courses where the normal duration is more than four years
Grant aid for postgraduate study limited to a maximum of four years in total. Account is taken of all previous attendance and attainment at postgraduate level when considering grant aid entitlement for postgraduate study, regardless of whether a person previously received a grant or not.
Qualifying distance criterion for non-adjacent rate of grant A change in the qualifying distance criterion for entitlement to the higher non-adjacent rate of grant (distance from home to the higher education institution) from 15 miles (24 kilometres) to 45 kilometres announced in Budget 2011 came into effect for all students from the start of the 2011/2012 academic year. As a result some continuing students were re-assessed on this basis.
Removal of automatic entitlement of mature students to the higher non-adjacent rate The automatic eligibility of mature students to the higher non-adjacent rate of grant was withdrawn for all students from the start of the 2011/2012 academic year, bringing the arrangements for mature students into line with all other students. Again, re-assessment of some continuing students was necessary.
Student contribution References in the schemes to the student services charge was replaced with the student contribution (€2,000).
Reckonable Income: An additional level of reckonable income limit was introduced from September 2011 to cover the cost of 50% of the new student contribution charge for qualifying students.
Single Agency System
The Minister for Education announced in April 2011 that the CDVEC has been chosen as the single awarding authority for student grants.
At that time it was considered that the unit would be fully operational as a single system for the 2012 Academic Year. However South Dublin County Council has learned through the Public Service Reform report published on 17th November 2011 that this will not now be operational until the 2013 Academic year. Therefore be no in-house changes are anticipated in terms of redeployment of staff and resources until at least 2013