The Union of Students in Ireland has called on the Minister for Education to set up an expert group on student support to undertake a major review of grants, access for disadvantaged students and other issues.
The USI president, Mr Philip Madden, said the union's call was backed by the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities, the Conference of Directors of Institutes of Technology, the Teachers Union of Ireland, the Irish Federation of University Teachers, and the National Parents Council (post-primary).
The USI education officer, Mr Ian Russell, said the 1993 de Buitleir report on student support, which had not looked at the level of student maintenance grants, had made a number of recommendations, including a centralised grants authority and grants for part-time students, which had not been implemented.
He said the centralised grants authority proposal, which had been taken up by Mr Martin when he first came into office two years ago, appeared to have "died a death at the moment", while the part-time student grants proposal, also echoed in the 1995 Education White Paper, had "dropped off the agenda".
The Minister had frequently promised to do something about making third-level access for disadvantaged students easier, said Mr Madden.
The USI had hoped he would "use the opportunity to put in place measures to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds, who are grossly underrepresented in third-level colleges, when he recently published the revised grants levels for students starting college this autumn".
"This country, with a budget surplus of several billion pounds, has thousands of students being denied their chance of further education because they simply can't afford to go to college," said Mr Russell.
"Successive reports have shown that third-level education in Ireland is still largely the preserve of the relatively wealthy. What we need is a radical examination of our system of financial support."
Mr Madden said the USI, which has recently carried out a strategic review, aimed to change from being an organisation that was "too internally focused, constantly bickering with itself" to one which was focused on finding solutions for its quarter of a million student members.
To this end, it would subsume a number of part-time officerships - those covering women's, disability and gay and lesbian rights - into a full-time equality post.
It had already appointed an outside general manager, who would handle its finances, and was looking for an outside communications officer.
To raise money, it would sell a significant part of its holding in the USIT travel firm.