Concern as student hardship cases double

Date Published: 19-Jan-2012

BY CIARAN TIERNEY

Students in Galway have been forced to move in with friends during the cold winter months because of an inability to pay heating bills as the number of hardship cases at the city’s two third level colleges has doubled in the space of four years.

Representatives at NUI Galway and GMIT have come across cases where people have resorted to crowding into friends’ accommodation in recent weeks, or couples who have decided to live together temporarily in shared houses, in order to cut down on the cost of fuel.

Financial constraints brought about by the economic downturn and changes to the grants system have seen some students living away from home try to get by on budgets of just €20 to €25 per week, with many expressing concern that they may need to drop out of College.

Applications for the Student Assistance Fund (SAF) reached 1,300 at NUI Galway this year, double the number for the 2007-8 academic year, and disputes with landlords have grown due to the inability of some the young people to pay their rents or utility bills.

The GMIT Students’ Union have noted a 50% increase in applications for the same fund, which is designed to alleviate hardship among those attending third level colleges, in the space of just one year.

“We are dealing with more and more hardship cases, even compared to a year ago,” said the President of the GMIT SU, Joe O’Connor. “Some students have had their grants cut from €6,300 to €2,500 and they simply can’t afford to stay in College. I know of one final year student, in his third year, who has a young family. He had to drop out after his grant was cut by 70%.”

He said that the SAF was intended to provide assistance to students experiencing genuine hardship, but it was impossible to make up the cuts in funding which resulted from the changes to the grant system introduced last year.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.