Thousands caught in college grants squeeze

The lead story (available here) on the front page of Friday's Irish Independent was about tens of thousands of Irish students being caught out in a "college grants squeeze". According to author John Walshe, those affected are the children of families who are just over the income threshold limits to qualify for a grant.

"A new report from the Higher Education Authority says that the current 'inadequate' income thresholds for grants disqualify large numbers of salaried employees within this lower-middle-income group. At present, to get a full maintenance grant of €3,420, the maximum income limit for a family of four children is €38,675 a year. For more than eight children, it is €46,140 a year. Former education minister Niamh Bhreathnach, who abolished tuition fees, admitted she was surprised and disappointed at the figures for the lower- middle classes..."

The issue of grant elibility (and also the level of grants awarded, which is less often debated) have been discussed on this blog before here. Almost one year ago from today, it was announced that the higher education maintenance grant would increase by 10%, or twice the rate of inflation; also the annual income thresholds to qualify for grants were announced to be increased by 3.5%. At the time I commented that these were positive developments but that one couldn't help but wonder if the increases were arbitrary. The increase in the grant (by 10%) was presented as twice the rate of inflation, but the actual level of the grant is only €3,420, and this seems to be set quite arbitrarily. There is research that estimates what students’ monthly expenditure actually amounts to; it averages at €698 per month according to Darmody et al (Eurostudent 2005). This approximates to €8,000 euro every year.

With this in mind, the annual maintenance support of €3,420 seems very low, and falls very far below half of the amount (€8,000) that students are estimated to need for their annual expenditure. If policy in this arena was to be informed by research and to avoid accusations of arbitrariness, surely the annual maintenance level should be set at €8,000? Admittedly, this is the average level of annual expenditure, but it might prove too unwieldy to discriminate between students who have expenditure on items such as accomodation and those who don't.

In relation to the main story from Friday's paper --- that is the annual income thresholds for grant eligibility --- we know that almost 35,000 students received financial maintenance support in 2004 (according to the National Office for Equity of Access to Higher Education in 2005. This figure of 35,000 is roughly one third of the entire student body, the same ratio as those who received financial support in 1980 (Coolahan, 1991). A Geary working paper from 2007, "Household Characteristics of Higher Education Participants", suggests that eligibility for maintenance grants is an important factor for encouraging particpation in higher education.