Matures Studying Abroad

mazi

What is the situation re grants for an Irish person whilst studying abroad ( preferably Holland or U.K)? Do we get the same coverage re education because we are part of the e.u? I.e only pay registration fees? I emailed a College in Holland but they were not quite clear as to the admissions process either.Seems to be based on your secondary education which doesn't make sense if you are applying as a mature right?

Or

If anyone has studied in the above places as a mature student & how they got on etc, would be interested to get some insight into studying abroad, funding etc.

pow wow

In relation to the UK the Irish grants system covers you there assuming you are eligible (i.e. if you'd be eligible for the grant at a local college you'd get it for an English one). However you have to pay the same fees as an English student, which are quite substantial and liable for increase. You can apply for a tuition fee loan from the British student loans system to cover the fees. There is information here.

I don't know about Holland, sorry!

Edit: Re. the second level results on applications, they usually look for you to have some formal qualifications and most of the younger mature students would have some formal second level qualifications (junior/leaving cert. etc.) which is why the forms are usually skewed toward that. They're not a necessity for mature students.

dyl10

Holland offer a really good loan system the "IB-Groep" to international students, I believe.
You should never have trouble looking for dutch student financial information.
It's designed to be helpful, unlike here, where it is designed to be vague.