SUSI urges students to submit their student grant applications before the July 8th deadline

SUSI urges students to submit their student grant applications before the
July 8th deadline

The national student grant awarding body, SUSI (Student Universal Support
Ireland), is urging students who have yet to submit their applications for
student grant funding for the 2016/17 academic year to do so now. The
deadline for applications is Friday, July 8th.

SUSI is currently in its fifth year of operations and opened its 2016/17
online application system, for new and renewal student grants, on April 5th.
This was almost three weeks earlier than in 2015/16, and to-date SUSI has
received 70,000 applications.

Graham Doyle, Head of Communications & Customer Service with SUSI, has the
following message for students: “We are expecting to receive approximately
110,000 applications for the 2016/17 academic year. We have received 70,000
applications to-date and we would urge students to apply before the deadline
of July 8th to ensure that their applications receive priority”.

The national awarding authority has already awarded grants to 37,000
students for 2016/17, including almost 8,000 new students, the first time
that such applications have been awarded so early.   Mr. Doyle added: “We
have changed our process this year and are awarding new applicants earlier
than ever before. In previous years, Leaving Certificate students had to
wait until they received their Leaving Certificate results and CAO offers
late in August before we could award them. However, this year, based on
learning from previous years, we are awarding students to the courses that
they have identified in their applications to us, as soon as possible. We
have already awarded almost 8,000 such students which is great news.

I would encourage students who are thinking of applying for a student grant
to visit our website www.susi.ie where they can review information about the
eligibility criteria for student grant funding. In particular, they should
use our online ‘grant eligibility reckoner’ where they can quickly, and
easily, self-assess whether they may/may not be entitled to a student
grant.”

Students are also encouraged to use their own SUSI ‘online application
trackers’, where they can track the progress of their applications and
confirm that documentation has been received without having to contact SUSI
directly.