How to make sure of that valuable place on your chosen course

COLLEGE CHOICE:NOW THAT you know your Leaving Cert results, one question remains: can you afford to take up your college place?

For many, college entry will depend – not on their points – but on their success in securing a grant. This year the grant process has changed dramatically.

There were four grant schemes last year but these have been replaced by a single unified programme. This will make it far easier for students to apply.

How to apply for grant support

First-time students applying for a grant for the 2011-12 academic year and attending institutes of technology, further education colleges or PLC centres should apply to the VEC where they live. Students going to the seven universities should apply to their local authority.

Continuing students already in receipt of a grant under an earlier scheme will remain with their existing grant-awarding agency for the duration of their course, regardless of where they are undertaking their studies.

Moreover, almost 38,000 students will be able to apply online for their grant this year.

Applying online

The financial-aid online facility is now available in an additional 24 grant-awarding bodies, giving a total of 35 using the system.

This online facility is available in Irish and English through the studentfinance.ie website.

It is intended that grants online will be available to all students next year when a single payment- awarding authority will become operational. The electronic transfer of payments into a student’s bank account, which is already in operation for many students, is to be extended to all by the single-grant awarding authority.

The City of Dublin VEC has been appointed to operate the payment system subject to an implementation plan being agreed with the Department of Education. It will take all new applications for grants for the 2012-13 academic year.

The existing payment-awarding agencies will deal with the renewal of existing grants on a wind-down basis over a three- to four-year period. This will eliminate confusion from the system as students will know where to apply for financial aid.

Appeals

For the first time this year, the grants system will have an independent appeals board. An unsuccessful applicant can appeal to their awarding agency initially, as in the past.

If the applicant is still unhappy with the decision on their appeal, a subsequent request for review can be made to the independent appeals board. Until now, the second appeal was made to the department.

Make your application now

Many students still wait until very late in the process – frequently only after a CAO offer – to apply for a grant. This clogs up the system, delaying decisions and payments. So if you feel that you are going to receive an offer next Monday, apply for your grant now.

Remarkably, up to 60 per cent of applications in some areas have to be returned as they are incomplete or don’t have the necessary supporting documentation. Please ensure that forms are completed correctly.

Parents and students will be glad to know that the income limits to qualify for a grant remain unchanged for the new academic year.

More good news is that the reckonable income limits are being extended to provide for an additional eligibility category of support to allow qualification for a “50 per cent student contribution”.

However, students should be aware of one bit of bad news. The Government in the last budget increased the qualifying distance criterion for the non-adjacent rate of grant from 24km to 45km. The automatic entitlement of mature students to the non-adjacent rate of financial aid has also been removed.

These measures take effect from next month and they will apply to new and existing students equally.

Full details of the 2011-12 student grant scheme, together with the application form and guidance notes, are available in the grants section of studentfinance.ie

Brian Mooney will provide detailed advice to students in Monday’s College Choice 2011 supplement with The Irish Times. Updates and advice on CAO points will also be available at irishtimes.com when the first round of offers are published.

This column resumes on Tuesday.