WHEN THE Higher Education Grants Scheme for 1995 was issued last year, mature students around the country might have been forgiven for thinking that it had been co authored by Joseph Heller, creator of Catch 22.

Boiled down to its essence, Catch 22 essentially means that you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't and the 1995 HEG Scheme seemed intent on insuring that mature students became the latest recruits to the legions of the damned.

Clause one of the scheme limited the non adjacent rate grant to those who lived more than 15 miles from their college. This ensured that students whose normal (i.e permanent) residence was a reasonable distance from their college and who were, in most cases, living away from home, would receive a higher grant than those whose normal residence was within easy reach of the college. Unfortunately (or, according to UCC students' union, due to the intentional inclusion of "clever wording" in the clause), independent mature students were left in a difficult situation. Dependent on their own income and, in many cases, mobile enough to move to another location to attend college, they found themselves rated as adjacent for grant purposes because they took up residence within less than 15 miles of their college.

To qualify for a full grant of around £1,500 instead of the adjacent grant of £607 they would, quite simply, have to find a house at least 15 miles outside the town or city in which they were attending college.

USI education officer Liam Kelly points out that a mature student who moves from, say Dublin to UCG, has to prove he is maintaining a residence in Dublin in order to qualify for a full maintenance grant. "This penny pinching on the part of the Government makes a mockery of its commitment to mature students," he says.

The number of mature students studying in full time education in this country is actually quite small when compared with other European countries, with fewer than 1,700 full time mature students at third level in 1994. The proportion of mature students in full time education in the UK is almost five times higher than here and both student representatives and departmental and HEA working groups have not been slow to lay the blame for our poor participation rates at the door of under resourcing.

"In purely financial terms it's extremely difficult for mature students," says Dave Harley, acting president of UCC students union. "Frequently they have to move to another part of the country to attend college, they have to resettle in Cork, rent a flat or apartment, preferably near the college, and they have to do all this on £600, as well as bleeding and clothing themselves. There's a hell of a poverty trap there."

Despite the stated aims of the HEA Steering Committee on Third Level Education and the White Paper on Education on improving access to education, the issue of normal residency in grant applications is only one of a number of hurdles which appear to have been set in the path of mature people hoping to return to full time education. They also include the continued means testing of mature students living at home on the basis of both their own income and that of their parents.

The de Buitleir report on reforms to the third level grants system recommended that mature students should be means tested on their own income, regardless of their place of residence but, as with so many of the recommendations contained in that report, it seems unlikely to trouble policy makers for some time to come.

"I think in this specific case, and generally, the White Paper is rich in aspirations but the practical policy and resources to implement those aspirations are not in place," says John Walsh, education officer of TCD students' union. "In this case, many mature students face serious problems as they themselves have to make sacrifices to come to college in the first place."

In addition, the report from the technical working group on the Future Development of Higher Education made it clear that funding was a primary concern for mature students.

"Our research indicates that lack of adequate financial resources is the principal difficulty experienced by full time mature students while attending higher education," the report stated.

Lorna Kerin, welfare officer in UL students' union, believes that the particular financial pressures on mature students are not only discouraging them from attending full time third level education, but are forcing some mature students, who are already in attendance, to drop out.

"Some people have dropped out," she says. "I've seen three or four this year - but that's only the ones who have come through this office."

She adds that financial worries can prevent mature students from taking an active part in the academic, social and extra curricular activities in college.

"Their worries about finance interfere with the quality of their education and they don't get a holistic university experience," she says.

IT'S a real shame because mature students bring such a wealth of experience to a university that if they had the time and energy they could contribute so much more."

The general view among student representatives is that the clause relating to adjacency for mature students should be rescinded, that their financial independence should be recognised for grant purposes and that increased levels of support should be offered to those who are parents in order to relieve some of the burden of creche and childcare facilities.

This is in addition to the separate question of assisting those mature students who have chosen to study part time and for whom the recent proposals on tax relief are welcome but largely insufficient.

According to UCD's Dean of Arts Dr Fergus D'Arcy, the faculty is "bursting at the seams" and is unable to provide places for all of the 600-700 non matriculated mature students seeking places on full time programmes each year.

Evening degree courses could provide an alternative route, but without sufficient funding many will not be able to afford it.

"If they could get into the evening programme it would be a huge improvement and we could extend the range of educational opportunities on offer," he told representatives of Fianna Fail, Democratic Left and the Progressive Democrats when they visited UCD last month. He had asked for a pilot programme to grant fund 50 mature evening students, he said, but he had been rebuffed.

USI's Liam Kelly suggests that the Minister for Education's rate of delivery on commitments has not matched her levels of consultation, and that her failure to deliver on issues such as access for mature students has left her open to charges of hypocrisy. "I actually do believe she is not listening," he concludes grimly.

According to the Department of Education, the Higher Education Grants scheme is being reviewed at present and its publication is "imminent". It remains to be seen if the pleas of mature students will continue to fall on deaf cars.