Fees and grants.

Liquidsunshine

I dropped out in first year because I was pregnant and want to know what the story is with fees,grants, back to education etc.
I want to do a different course and this will count as repeating a year which i know i will have to pay for, but do i have to pay full fees for subsequent years or will i only have to pay full fees for my first year seeing as it is "repeating"?
Am i eligible for a grant?
How does the back to education work?
I am only 18 and don't want to wait until i'm a mature student to return to college. Thanks in advance for any help!
(plus i know with the current debate about the government bringing in fees things may change but i just want a general idea, thanks)

Liquidsunshine

Liquidsunshine wrote: »

I dropped out in first year because I was pregnant and want to know what the story is with fees,grants, back to education etc.
I want to do a different course and this will count as repeating a year which i know i will have to pay for, but do i have to pay full fees for subsequent years or will i only have to pay full fees for my first year seeing as it is "repeating"?
Am i eligible for a grant?
How does the back to education work?
I am only 18 and don't want to wait until i'm a mature student to return to college. Thanks in advance for any help!
(plus i know with the current debate about the government bringing in fees things may change but i just want a general idea, thanks)

Hi Liquidsunshine,

It depends when you dropped out. If you dropped out around Christmas/January (or before) you'd only be eligible for fees for the first half of 1st year in the new course. If you dropped out after January you'd have to pay for the full year.

As for paying fees, if you were eligible for a grant before you wouldn't be eligible for it until second year - however, and a big however, there's a possibility that you would be eligible depending on whether you dropping out due to a pregnancy is an exceptional case as decided by the Council/VEC. They do have the power to give a grant for 'repeat' years which would mean your fees would be paid, but I don't know whether they would think of pregnancy as being under that or not (trying to give the facts here so if I come across as not very PC my apologies!).

But because you're under 23 at the moment you would be judged on your income and your parents'/guardians' income for 2008, irrelevant of whether you're living with them or not. This is one of the things that's subject to change but I haven't heard anything concrete for 2009/10 academic year yet.

The Back to Education Allowance is normally given to people who are unemployed for between 9 and 12 months (can't remember) - have a look at some of the links in my signature for more information on this.

So that's about it! To enquire further it's worth contacting your local VEC and/or Council who should give a full breakdown on what your entitlements would be, as well as any proposed plans (they'd know more than anyone here!).

Best of luck with going back to college by the way - if you fall on hard times financially do remember that a lot of the colleges have creche facilities and subsidies, as well as a Student Assistance Fund which any student can apply to in times of financial worry. It isn't bottomless nor would the amounts be big but it is worth keeping in mind.

Hope it all goes well

Dónal

Liquidsunshine

Well i'm glad i dropped out before xmas so! that was really helpful thank you so much