Mature students can sometimes find the application process for third level daunting, with its lexicon of reserved places, interviews, aptitude tests and entry requirements. In fact, the lack of adequate support structures for third-level students, a situation which is still in the process of being addressed, has left the Republic of Ireland lagging behind Britain and Northern Ireland in terms of the level of participation by mature entrants at third level. In 1993-94, for example, figures presented to the Steering Committee on the Future of Higher Education revealed that mature students formed less than 6 per cent of all full-time entrants to third level in Ireland, compared to 29 per cent in Northern Ireland and 33 per cent in Britain.
To help in understanding the process and facilitating mature entrants, the Department of Education and Science has just published the latest edition of its information guide for mature students who are planning to enter full-time third-level education in 1998.
Mature students are those aged 23 or over on or before January 1st of their year of application and, for the majority of courses, applications must be made by February 1st. The situation is further complicated by the fact that some colleges use the CAO, while others require mature students to apply directly to the college. In the first instance, mature students should contact the college in which they are interested.
It is also worth remembering that individuals who are over 21 and in receipt of social welfare payments for six months or more can take a place on a full-time or part-time third-level course and still retain their benefits, including any rent or fuel allowances. Similarly, lone parents over 21 who have been in receipt of benefits for over six months can also retain their benefits while studying at third level. Further details are available from social-welfare offices.
The one significant glitch in access to third-level education for mature students, the Catch-22 situation involving the maintenance grant, has yet to be resolved. Under the current regulations, mature students who apply from their parental home are assessed for grant eligibility on the basis of both their own income and the income of their parents. If they apply independently, and live within 15 miles of the college they are attending, they are eligible only for partial maintenance, a maximum amount of only £812. Fianna Fail committed itself to resolving this quirk in the system in its education policy document, although the precise nature of the change is unlikely to become clear until the publication of the 1998 Higher Education Grants Scheme in May 1998. Grant applications for mature students should be made to local authorities in the case of degree-level courses, to VECs for certificate and diploma courses and, for certain middle-level technician and higher technical and business skills courses, to the Department of Educations European Social Fund Section, Floor 6, Apollo House, Tara Street, Dublin 2.
Copies of the guide are available free of charge from the Curriculum Development Unit, Sundrive Road, Dublin 12 (tel: (01) 453 5487).
