As noted in the Introduction, the HEA has a Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) in place with Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI), the national grant awarding authority. Through the DSA, SUSI has transferred data to the HEA which provides data from 2017/2018 to 2022/23 grant recipients.  The data transferred includes students’ grant rates, adjacency rates and distance from college.

SUSI provides support to eligible students in approved, full-time courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. For the purposes of this report, the SUSI dataset (2017/18 – 2022/23) was linked with the HEA’s record of full-time enrolments (2018/19 – 2022/23) in the Student Records System (SRS), the HEA’s main database of students and graduates.  In this section, we consider SUSI data such as grant status and grant rates according to:

• Gender
• Age
• Higher Education Institution (HEI) attended
• Field of study

These student and course attributes can be considered according to year of study, and programme level (undergraduate and postgraduate).

Purpose of this report and analytical approach

Readers are requested to take into account the analytical note included in the Introduction, noting that this report stands alone analytically within this suite of reports.

The overall purpose of this report is to assess the size of the SUSI population within the overall HEA higher education population; and then to profile some of the key aspects of both the SUSI grant recipient population and the non-recipient population.

It should be noted that the dataset in this analysis does not encompass the full cohort of students in receipt of a SUSI grant.  Other SUSI grant holders, such as those in further education, those in non-HEA-funded institutions and those studying abroad are not included in the analysis.  This analysis is restricted to those studying higher education in HEA-funded institutions.

For each academic year, each student PPSN in the SUSI dataset was linked with the same student PPSN in the HEA SRS dataset.  The analytical choice made here is to include as full a higher education population as possible, with the purpose of assessing the overall size of the SUSI population within the overall system.

Therefore, the analysis in this chapter includes internationally domiciled students who do not typically receive a grant and this means that the HEA student body considered here is broader than those eligible for a grant.  Furthermore, given that data in this chapter is linked on the basis of PPSN, those who do not have a PPSN or have an invalid PPSN are considered to be in the category of not being in receipt a grant.

Therefore, any conclusions reached by the reader should take these considerations into account. More details on the grant system and the methodology behind this report can be found on the Methodology and Definitions page

Key Findings

A summary of key findings is as follows:

• The number of full-time students in receipt of a grant has fallen by 15.5% from 2018/19 to 2022/23. However, the drop is 12% from 2021/22 – 22/23 with an increase expected in 2023/24.
• The percentage of full-time students in receipt of a grant has declined from 33% of the student body in 2018/19, to 26% of the student body in 2022/23.
• Grants are mainly awarded at undergraduate level (95.2% of all grants awarded).
• The majority of grant awardees are female (57%).
• A significant proportion of older students are in receipt of a grant (29% of over 30 year olds, across all years of study), with a smaller proportion of grants awarded to those aged between 23 and 30 (19%).
• Traditional universities have a higher total number of grant recipients but in the technological sector grant recipients make up a greater proportion of their respective student cohorts.
• Grant recipients are more likely to study Services (leisure and hospitality) programmes and less likely to study Social Sciences, Journalism and Information programmes.

Number of Full-Time Grant Recipients

The number of grant recipients has fallen between 2018/19 (60,905) and 2022/23 (51,462).

There were 60,905 full-time grant recipients in 2018/19. This number fell to 51,462 in 2022/23.

• A total of 14,378 out of 51,462 of grant recipients in 2022/23 were new entrants (27.9%).
• Grant recipients were typically of Irish domiciliary of origin in 2022/23 (98.9%).
• The overwhelming majority of grants were awarded at undergraduate level in 2022/23 (95.2% of all grant recipients).
• The majority of grant recipients were female in 2022/23 (58%).

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Breakdown of Grant Recipients

33% of all full-time students were grant recipients in 2018/19, compared with 26% in 2022/23.

The Methodology and Definitions section of this suite of reports provides a listing of SUSI grant types and the financial amounts awarded under each type.

Overall, the percentage of students in receipt of any type of grant declined between 2018/19 (33%) and 2022/23 (26%).

The SUSI website sets out the types of grants that can be awarded.  These fall into two broad categories: maintenance grants, which help students with their living costs; and fee grants, which pay tuition fees and the student contribution.  The financial amount of grant to be awarded is dependent on family income and how many dependent children the student has. A number of grant awards can be differentiated according to adjacency, which relates to the distance that a student lives from college.  If a student lives less than 30km from college, they receive the adjacent rate; otherwise they receive the non-adjacent rate. The Methodology and Definitions page gives more detail on the different grant types and financial amounts awarded.

Students are most commonly in receipt of Band 1 grants.  This grant is known as the 100% rate, and provides the standard full rate of maintenance and full fees/student contribution.  A total of 14% of the full-time student body (including non-recipients) were in receipt of this type in 2018/19.  This share fell to 11% in 2022/23.  The Special Rate grant was the second most commonly received grant type.  The special rate provides a higher special rate maintenance and full fees/student contribution.  A total of 9% of the full-time student body (including non-recipients) were in receipt of this type of grant in 2018/19; and this share fell to 6% in 2022/23.

 

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Gender and Age

57% of full-time grant recipients across all years were female.

55% of grant recipients in 2018/19 were female, this increased to 58% in 2022/23.

A total of 19% of students between the ages of 23-30 were grant recipients. A total of 33% of under 23 year old students were grant recipients and 29% of students over 30 years of age were in receipt of a grant.

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HEI Grant Characteristics

Traditional universities have a higher total number of grant recipients but in the Technological sector grant recipients make up a greater proportion of their respective student cohorts.

Atlantic TU (50%), TU of the Shannon (49%) and South-East TU (44%) have the largest proportion of grant recipients amongst their full-time student body.

The Royal College of Surgeons (3%), UCD (15%) & TCD (16%) have the lowest representation of grant recipients amongst their full-time student body.  It should be borne in mind though, that HEIs differ in terms of both their student body’s domiciliary of origin, and programme provision at undergraduate / postgraduate levels.  For example, when only Irish-domiciled undergraduate students are considered, 11% of RCSI students, 21% of UCD students, and 23% of TCD students are in receipt of a grant.

TU Dublin accounts for the largest share of grant holders (12% of all grant recipients nationally), followed by Atlantic TU at 11% of all grant recipients nationally.

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Grant Recipients by Field of Study

44% of full-time Services students are grant recipients.

This chart considers the field of study of grant recipients and non-recipients.

Services, which consists of leisure, tourism and hospitality programmes (44%) is the field of study in which the largest proportion of grant recipients are found.  Social Sciences, journalism and information (26%) accounts for the lowest percentage of grant recipients within a field of study.

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