Colleges Now Offering Courses On How To Get Your Grant Paid

WITH some 20,000 students still waiting for their applications for maintenance grants to be processed, colleges across the country have begun to introduce modules on what exactly is required to get a grant.

Despite the SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland) website promising a “quick and user friendly way to apply for your student grant”, thousands of young people find themselves trapped every year in a baffling nightmare of hidden rules and red tape, holding up their much-needed payments.

Many students find themselves without access to college facilities such as the library until SUSI “sort out” their applications.

Despite managing to have all required paperwork filled out and submitted before the closing date in August, the processing procedure has left 20,000 applicants hanging in the wind while waiting for maintenance grants or assistance with college fees. Many applicants have been requested to re-submit their forms, or provide further documentation to SUSI, none of which was mentioned during the initial application process.

As such, new classes will be provided during the college year in order to help students find out just how they’re supposed to work the system and get their grants.

“It’s a much more complicated process than it needs to be”, said James Young, Grant Studies lecturer at UCD.

“Basically designed to stretch the education budget as much as they can, and not pay out everything in one go. I used to do the same myself with my car tax, just try and get away without paying it as long as I could. This new class will help kids to make a successful application in one go, so they don’t spend their first semester trying to find a proof of address from three years ago while worrying about having enough money for the bus”.

Young went on to state that the course would also help deal with idiots who just assume that a student is only interested in getting a grant so they can go drinking and partying.