First shift of the annual grantwatch

As the academic year begins, Campus Times assumes its best finger-wagging mode in an effort to find out when exactly - not meaning to be pushy, mind, but the money would come in handy - the local authorities and VECs plan to pay over the first instalments of the student grant.

In the past, some local authorities have incurred the wrath of students' unions for being excessively tardy in sending cheques to colleges. Clare County Council, for example, tended to cause a certain amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth among those relying on cash from the good burghers of Ennis to keep body and soul together.

This was not entirely the fault of the council. Clare's was one of a number of local authorities which relied on colleges to supply students' registration details before it paid out grants, leaving students caught in an impoverished wasteland.

This year, Clare has dispensed with the registration system and instead provided grant-holders with a certificate they could get stamped in their college and then forward on to the council. The result: Clare County Council paid first instalments to first-time grant recipients and renewals in mid-September. By last week, 350 students had received payments, whereas in previous years they would still have been waiting for their cheques at this time. A round of applause, therefore, for Clare.

Students do not always help their own cause. Dublin Corporation has the largest number of grant applications of any local authority in the State and performs its Herculean labours with limited staff, but a spokesman indicated that there had been a "very poor" response rate from students when it came to returning their acceptance forms to the Corporation. The Corpo is "semi-optimistic" that it will make first payments to colleges in about three weeks time.

Elsewhere in Dublin, Dun Laoghaire/ Rathdown deserves praise. It made initial payments to renewal students at the start of September and the bulk of renewal students have now received their money. DL/R facilitated the speedy processing of renewals by asking students to bring in their exam results during the summer, so the cheques would be ready for them when they returned in the autumn. The council hopes to pay first-timers in the first half of November.

Finally, an interesting variation on the problem of grants for mature students came our way this week. As we never tire of pointing out, the current grants scheme contains a Catch-22 for mature students. If they apply from their parental home, their parental income and their own income is taken into account for the means test. Yet, if they apply on an independent basis - usually from an address near the college of their choice - they receive only partial maintenance because they are within a 15-mile radius of the college.

A correspondent from Munster wrote to point out that one section of the population suffers a more subtle form of discrimination: housewives. Those who have given up jobs to raise families and wish to return to fulltime education find that the grant system is not responsive to their particular needs.

As the correspondent wrote: "Now if I want to return to education I have to pay and I have no money. Yes, my husband has, but I have to ask for that money. Any wife has to. Surely, there should be a provision for us?"