University Fees in Ireland

Mars

What way does the university fees system generally work in Ireland?

In Scotland, I think the education dept simply provides a grant to the student which covers the fees. I don't think the student has to pay this back.

In England, I think the education dept provide a loan which the student has to pay back after they leave university and only when they start earning a certain amount; which I think is quite a low amount.

How does the fees system work here?

GuanYin

At the moment there is a policy of free education in Ireland.
That is fees and tutoring are paid for by the government (local authority) on behalf of the student. This fee does not need to be repaid. There is a capitation charge to cover registration, exams fees and administration which is 700 Euro approx (and has gone up over 150% in 5 years) that must be paid every year by the student.

In addition, students may be economically assessed to qualify for a local authority grant to cover this fee, along with a maintenance grant that works out at up to just under 2000 Euro.

Now, I started with at the moment because there is ongoing debate in the government about free education and the threat of it being removed has been looming large for some time now. There have been many hair brained schemes and ideas put forward, some which may even work ina compitent government, but the one that looks most likely at present is a fees system based on the economic background of the student.

Oh just as an FYI, any EU citizen that has been living in Ireland for 5 years or more and still has residency here, qualifies for the current free fees system.

Borzoi

There's more info on the Oasis Govt Info Site

Which gives all the details on the levels of maintenance grants.

But as sykeirl says, everything is open to change

GuanYin

That maintenance grant is actually up to 2000 Euro (I originally had 200).