Last year's crop of new students got some bad news just before they started college. The annual cost of going to third level for people living away from home had breached the £5,000 barrier for the first time. The bad news for anyone contemplating college this year is that costs are still rising and come September we're likely to be looking at an even more expensive scene. With rents rocketing, students living away from home, especially in the Dublin area, can expect their accommodation costs to eat up the lion's share of their budgets. High rental charges are particularly onerous for students who opt for self-catering accommodation. In the Budget, Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy announced tax concessions for people renting out rooms in their houses. While this may do something to ease the shortage, the fact remains that most students want to rent flats or houses. According to the most recent figures supplied by DCU, the monthly cost of renting a shared house or flat is now £240 per month. If you're going to live away from home, you can expect that a year in college will cost you £5,100. Live at home and it will still cost you around £3,000.
Rent apart, if you live away from home you'll be spending almost £140 on food each month, more than £40 on travel and around £70 on books, academic requisites, clothes, laundry and medical expenses. Even if you remain at home, going to college will still cost you over £300 per month, according to Barry Kehoe, DCU's director of student affairs.
According to the Department of Education and Science, 40 per cent of the State's 112,000 third-level students are in receipt of maintenance grants, at a total cost of over £82 million.
Currently, in order to qualify for a full maintenance grant, your annual family income must be no more than £20,200, if there are fewer than four dependent children in the family.
Third-level grant schemes are administered by both the VECs and the local authorities. The VEC Scholarship Scheme covers full-time undergraduate and postgraduate courses at DCU, UL, the ITs and a number of colleges in the non-university sector. Students on approved full-time PLC courses are now eligible for ESF-funded grants, which are also available to students following middle-level courses at the ITs. The Higher Education Grants Scheme is administered by the local authorities. If you wish to be considered for a grant, you should apply to your local authority or VEC as soon as you have completed your Leaving Cert in June. This year, the full maintenance grant stands at £1,775 if you live away from home and £710 if you live at home. Given the current cost of going to college, these amounts are clearly inadequate. If they don't have reasonably well off parents, students have to borrow and or take part-time employment to make up the difference. In September, the Minister announced top-up grants for the most disadvantaged students. These amount to an extra £225 for students in receipt of the full maintenance grant and an additional £290 for students living 15 miles or less from college and eligible for the full amount (see opposite page).
Most years, there is a minimal grant increase and from time to time the income thresholds also change. This year, there are great hopes that major changes to the grants scheme will be announced before students take up places in the autumn.
