THE Department of Education has long confirmed that, as suspected, there is no such thing as a free lunch - even if the lunch has been advertised as free and people seeking it have been encouraged to attend. This is particularly the case when it comes to third-level education.
Despite the abolition of third-level fees, the educational equivalent of advertising a free lunch, students and parents still face a considerable financial burden at certificate, diploma and degree level.
The abolition of fees was to have made it easier for students from more disadvantaged backgrounds to get a third-level education, but fees represent just one factor in the cost. Even with the removal of fees, students and their families can expect to spend as much as £5,000 a year for a student living away from home.
Estimates produced by the Union of Students in Ireland indicate that it costs £4,918 to finance a third-level student living away from home for eight months. An estimate from Dublin City University is lower at £3,870, although DCU's estimates for laundry, clothing, medical expenses, social life, electricity and telephones are considerably lower than those of the USI. Even splitting the difference still leaves a pro visional estimate of £4,400 for an eight-month academic year.
It should also be noted that USI bases its figures on a nine-month academic year. Students in rented accommodation still have to pay rent over Christmas and other holiday periods, while students in some RTCs may find their academic year starting in early September, up to one month before universities such as TCD.
Students trying to find accommodation may have to spend a week or more in the city and town of their choice trying to find somewhere suitable. For all these reasons, the USI figure of £5,517 over nine months may be more realistic.
Students living at home also face a financial burden estimated by USI as just over £3,100 and by DCU as over £2,200.
In the end, therefore, a student living away from home will need at least £500 a month, possibly more, while a student living at home will get by on much less, probably £200-£250.
Costs vary, of course, depending on a number of factors. On-campus accommodation - or accommodation supplied by a college - generally tends to be quite expensive. Bed sits or house-shares, especially in towns and cities outside Dublin, are usually cheaper.
MOST first-year students are usually advised to take digs or on-campus accommodation if they can get it, since it helps them to settle in. It can also help them through nasty things such as homesickness, loneliness, bad eating habits and worse company.
Costs can vary from faculty to faculty. Students of law, medicine or art and design, to name just a few areas, can expect to pay considerably more for books, equipment and materials than their peers in arts and, business.
It is worth checking college noticeboards, student web sites on the Internet and trusty second-hand bookshops before splashing out on new books and equipment.
Some costs can also be defrayed by taking up part-time work. According to a USI survey last year, 50 per cent of students surveyed were working part-time, most of them for 16 hours a week or less. Worryingly, almost 60 per cent said that it interfered with their study. Most students find themselves working unsociable hours in bars and restaurants. This can result in missed lectures and tutorials the following morning.
If you must work, try to limit it to the absolute minimum necessary and remember to take time off not only for study but to relax and socialise. If you are a science student or a student in a faculty with nine-to-five lecture hours, part-time work may simply not be an option and you may be forced to depend on loans, the kindness of relatives or, if you qualify, a grant.
The Higher Education Grants Scheme, which provides financial assistance to students on a means-tested basis, has failed to keep pace with the real cost of going to college. Students in RTCs may find themselves in receipt of ESF grants, but, the situation in their case is roughly, similar.
Last year's maximum maintenance grant for students living away from home and attending full-time education was only £1,600 (£637 for students whose normal home is 15 miles or less from college), a five per cent increase on the previous year and the first time in 10 years that the grant had increased above the level of inflation.
In fact, the real value of the grant fell by 20 per cent up to 1994. As, one commentator put it: "If you're poor enough to qualify for a maintenance grant, then you're too poor to afford to go to college.
For mature students the outlook is even worse. Few mature students actually manage to qualify for a non-adjacent maintenance grant. Due to an anomaly in the grants system - or, to adopt a more militant standpoint, callousness on the part of the Department - mature students living less than 15 miles from college do not get a full maintenance grant despite the fact that they may have moved house to be closer to their college.
If part-time work is not an option, or you simply don't have time to work, then a bank loan may be one way of taking some financial pressure off yourself during the academic year. AIB, Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank all have specialised student offices, usually near the local college. (Ulster Bank in particular has tended to offer loans with lower-than-average interest and interest-free overdrafts to help students whose grant payments arrive late.)
If you get a bank loan, the bank will usually expect you to pay it off by earning money during the summer. With interest on loans currently at around 10.75 per cent, the best advice is to borrow only if you really need to and don't borrow more than you need.
If you find yourself in severe difficulties, talk to the students' union or student services officer. They are there to help and at the very least should be able to tide you over with a short-term loan while offering help with long-term planning and advice.
BY this point you may be feeling a little glum and may be considering applying for a nice steady job in the French Foreign Legion rather than trying anything as difficult as surviving at third level. Yet most students enter third level without huge amounts of money at their disposal and manage to enjoy themselves, combining an active social life with the right amount of study, supplemented by part-time or summer work.
Occasional financial pressures are part and parcel of student life and most of those around you will be in the same position. Join student societies and sports clubs - they will usually be in a position to offer a cheap, useful way to enjoy yourself, as well as occasional tea, biscuits, sympathy and often something stronger.
With reasonably careful budgeting and a bit of work at weekends or during the summer, most students will get by comfortably. Until a more equitable, just and sympathetic grants system is produced, most students will have little choice.