Residency Requirement Issue! Advice on paying fees as a Mature Student

Wineport

Hello, I'm hoping to attend NUIG this autumn as a Mature Arts Student. Fingers crossed I get offered a place My question is about the residency requirement in order to have fees paid or get a grant from the local VEC. I was not resident in the country for 3 out of the last 5 years and just to spoke to the Dept. of Education who told me I would not be eligible for free fees and there is no exception to this rule on their end. Does anyone have any advice on how I can get some help paying the course fees and the non tuition charges. I'm currently in receipt of JSA and will more than likely be able to change over to BTEA according to my local office. However course fees and non tuition charges could hinder me from returning to school. Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers

[Jackass]

Only other way I can think of is to try and get a job and save and instead of getting BTEA you can get a grant of about 2k which will cover a good chunk of fees and you can try to work to pay the rest.

Wineport

Hey, thanks for replying. What is the grant of 2k your are referring to?

[Jackass]

http://www.studentfinance.ie/mp7232/maintenance-grant/index.html

Having read briefly, this may actually require 3 years residency too, but that site has all the student finance info there is.

Wineport

Cheers, thanks

scoobisnacks

I have a question on something you said:


" I was not resident in the country for 3 out of the last 5 years and just to spoke to the Dept. of Education who told me I would not be eligible for free fees and there is no exception to this rule on their end."

Were you in an EU member state for those years? I thought you had to be a resident in an EU member state for 3 out of the previous 5 years to qualify for free fees and for the maintenance grant you had to be 3 out of 5 years a resident in Ireland to qualify for it. The student service charges of 1500/2000 are payable by you if you are not eligible for the grant but the FEES should be paid...

I found this on the Student Finance website:

You are not required to pay tuition fees for these courses if you meet the following eligibility criteria as at the date of entry to the course:

you hold EU nationality* or are a national of member country of the EEA or Switzerland or you have been granted official refugee status**
you have been ordinarily resident in an EU Member State for at least three of the five years preceding your entry to the course
you are not undertaking a second undergraduate course

achmairt

Hi, If you lived and worked in an EU country (not studying) the three year rule wont apply and you could apply to your VEC for fees only to be paid for you.
If you previously lived outside the EU e.g. Australia or New Zealand, you won't be able to avail of this.

paperclip2

Hi,

I just checked with our grants office and the DES financial support office and the residency requirement has been recently changed. Now you have to be resident in Ireland for three out of the last five years. Before that three years within the EU would have been sufficient.



It does truly suck.

Also http://www,studentfinance.ie is woefully out of date so you do need to double check what it says on it.

scoobisnacks

Hi again,

Are you talking about Tuition Fees (which could be anything up to 10,000 a year) or are you talking about Registration Fees (or Student Services Charges about 1500 or 2000 a year)?

I rang yesterday also (the VEC and the Dept ED) and they told me that the Tuition Fees are covered by the Free Fees Initiative and only require that you were resident 3 out of 5 years in an EU country. However the Student Services Charge is part of the Grant System and requires you to be resident 3 out of 5 years in Ireland and not just EU.

Seems there is a lot of confusion.......I don't know what to believe anymore...

paperclip2

scoobisnacks wrote: »

Hi again,

Are you talking about Tuition Fees (which could be anything up to 10,000 a year) or are you talking about Registration Fees (or Student Services Charges about 1500 or 2000 a year)?

I rang yesterday also (the VEC and the Dept ED) and they told me that the Tuition Fees are covered by the Free Fees Initiative and only require that you were resident 3 out of 5 years in an EU country. However the Student Services Charge is part of the Grant System and requires you to be resident 3 out of 5 years in Ireland and not just EU.

Seems there is a lot of confusion.......I don't know what to believe anymore...

Go direct to the horses mouth. The DES office that implements all policy on financial matters for third level is the office called Financial Assistance in Further & Higher Education. Their number is 057 9325317. They can give you the complete picture of what would apply in your case if you outline all the circumstances. They are pretty helpful anytime I've rang them.

Wineport

Folks,

Thanks for all the replies and sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. I was a bit discouraged and overwhelmed with all the info so I decided to leave it alone for a while.
I have not been resident in Ireland or any EU country for the last 3 out of 5. I was in the States. So it does seem like I'm falling between the cracks.
I will ring the number provided and see how I get on there.

Thanks again.

jrk

Hi Wineport, how did this ever work out for you? I'm in a similar situation and wondering what you decided on in the end or if it ever worked out for you.
Thanks