The NUI Galway Students’ Union has welcomed a High Court decision to grant the Union of Students in Ireland leave to challenge a change to the student grants system.
The proposed changes to the grants would see some Galway students face cuts of more than 60 per cent in their grants this year.
USI had sought leave to judicially review changes to the new student grant scheme proposed in Budget 2011, which made major changes to the rules governing how far a student must live from NUIG in order to receive a higher, non-adjacent rate of grant payment.
The last Budget replaced the 24 kilometres threshold with a new one of 45 kilometres, with the Government claiming that improvements to public transport made it more feasible to commute to college from long distances.
The NUIG SU insists this is simply not the case and that many students are facing “unmanageable cuts” in their grants as a result. In some cases students can expect to see their grant cut from €6,100 to €2,445.
NUIG SU president Emmet Connolly said the Government’s current plan, if implemented, would see “undue hardship forced upon” those students “who are already struggling” to stay in college.
“The change in the distance criteria from 24km to 45km leaves students from places such as Tuam, Gort, Loughrea, and Headford on the 60 per cent lower level of the student grant,” he said, “and encourages them to join the dole queues rather than complete their education. When the Government is talking about igniting a smart economy, the last thing we as a country should be doing is restricting access to education.”
