College financial aid system buckles under pressure, leaving thousands in the lurch about grants

College aid system buckling under pressure, as thousands
left in the dark about applications

A hotly anticipated online Irish financial aid system has plunged into chaos according to media reports, leaving students in the dark about what money, if any, the government will pay towards their tuition.

Up to 50,000 Irish university students are still unaware if they will receive a government-issued maintenance grant towards their education costs, despite the university term now being well over a month underway.

The online system, which replaced a cumbersome and inefficient setup of local finance offices, was billed as a way of improving and expediting the issuing of maintenance grants to those who qualify for them - families whose cumulative earnings fall below an income threshold.

However critics say that the new website-based application process is now considerably slower than the previous network of bursars offices, while the large number of students still entirely unaware if they will receive the grant may be at an all-time high.

Several grant payments are available to Irish college students to assist with the already-low fees charged by universities there.

'Maintenance grants',  a series of staggered stipend payments towards students' living expenses is the most commonly issued payment, while non-adjacent grants, for those attending school at a significant distance from their homestead, is another commonly attained payment.

A significant percentage of Irish college students receive the maintenance grant, non-adjacent grant, or both. Other forms of financial support for hard-up students, such as emergency cash payments, are generally managed locally, through college, students unions, and charities.

The current situation could cause students considerable stress over the expensive Christmas period, mental health campaigners have claimed, while the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has warned that some students could be forced to drop out if a swift resolution was not forthcoming.

Of the over 40,000 applications received by the new system since the summer, just over 4,000 grants have been issued.

While the body responsible for centrally administering the hi-tech system has been quick to pin the blame on students, for reportedly not submitting the required supporting documentation on time, detractors have said it's unlikely that such a significant percentage of total applicants would have been filled incomplete.

USI President John Logue has said that the organization, SUSI, suffers from a serious staffing problem, and called on government to ensure that more hands are put on the pump to ensure that the backlog is cleared before the busy holidays season begins.

The new system, centrally administered from a base in Dublin, has been roundly criticized by opposition TDs, with Fianna Fáil's Education Spokesperson calling its introduction a backwards step, adding that students would have fared better with pen and paper.

Ireland's top business school ranks in global top 100 - high-flying grad-school counts CEOs, business leaders, among its alumni

Barry O'Brien is one young Irish
professional to have recently graduated
the prestigious Smurfit Business School.

Ireland's most prestigious graduate business and MBA school, The Smurfit Business School, has retained its position as Ireland's leading provider of postgraduate business education by ranking in the top 100 global MBA courses according to an index compiled by the Financial Times.

The school now ranks 88th on the list, Ireland's only entrant in a table spear-headed by major international names like Harvard, Columbia, and Stanford universities.

The school's Dean, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh said that the high-flying college's ability to stay within the global top 100 for over 13 years was testament to the quality of education offered at Smurfit, and proof that the institution's curriculum had what it took to stand up to a tidal wave of exciting and rapidly improving new players from the Asian Tiger economies.

"This year many [of the new entrants] were Asian and half of the top 20 are now either Asian or joint programmes between Asian and US/European schools," the Dean commented in a press release.

"This gives us a window into the commitment to graduate business schools by those nations," he said.

Dean Ó hÓgartaigh remained confident, however, that the Dublin provider had what it took to continue its foray through the global elite, and to stand up from competition elsewhere in Europe, where it is ranked in the top 20.

The Dean cited the school's triple accreditation from three of the leading global quality agencies in the discipline - EQUIS, AMBA, and AACSB - as another reason for the school's steady placement among the global top centenary of business education providers.

One recent alumnus, Finbarr (Barry) O'Brien of Cork, Ireland, who completed a Master of Strategic Management and Planning at the Dublin institute, said that the business school's blossoming global recognition, and strong ties with ex-pats in America, were both compelling factors to attend one of the courses.

"I'd spent time as a legislative intern at the Massachusetts House of Representatives during my undergrad years studying Government at University College Cork (UCC)," Barry, also an occasional small business and technology correspondent, told IrishCentral thismorning.

"Studying for a degree which could capitalize on the global prominence of Smurfit as an institution, while also providing me with an education that I could be assured was of world-class quality, was a great choice to make."

"As Taoiseach  [Prime Minister] Enda Kenny's recent address in Cleveland bore out, young Irish like me are always willing to roll up our sleeves and do what we can do ensure a brighter future both for ourselves and for the country."

"I'm certain that the Smurfit experience has given me a little extra something that will undoubtedly help along the way."

Quality of education, satisfaction among alumini, and academic rigor and quality, are all factors that determine programmes' placement on the top 100 rankings, according to the Financial Times.

Emigration plague grips Ireland - soaring unemployment and relentless pessimism forcing Irish to seek a future abroad

Emigration: 8pc spike in numbers leaving Ireland as
joblessness, pessimism , force thousands abroad.

Almost two percent of the Irish population left the country's shores last year in search of a brighter future abroad, according to shocking new figures from the Central Statistic Office, Ireland's national compiler of official governmental data.

The stark figures, which represent an eight percent increase on the previous year's emigration numbers, underscore the drastic nature of the mass exodus of Ireland's best and brightest, in what is fast becoming a brain drain without historical precedent.

An overwhelming sense of pessimism at the ongoing economic distress, and an unemployment rate hovering close to 15 percent have been cited as two of the main reasons for the ongoing export of young college graduates, newly qualified professionals, and others in search of greener and more prosperous pastures overseas.

The Union of Student in Ireland (USI), among other young persons' representatives bodies, have made repeated attempts to raise the issue with government , but push factors like joblessness, media negativity, and appealing opportunities overseas have proved the stronger sway for many members of what's been dubbed the emigration generation.

One marketing consultant interviewed by The Telegraph, a UK newspaper, for comment, said that Ireland was 'steeped in pessimism,' a sentiment echoed by many young Irish graduates that have made the short trip across the Irish Sea in search of better job prospects in England, Scotland, and Wales.

The US, Australia, and Canada, all retained their status as key host countries for young Irish emigrants, although Britain remained the predominant choice, with 22 percent of migrants choosing to settle there.

A Dublin based migration agency, meanwhile, told the paper that it had been inundated with requests for information about the Visa processes for relocating to the US, New Zealand, and Canada.

Even for those yet to graduate, it seems, the prospect of emigrating seems like an inevitable reality.

Conor Hinds, from Ballinascara, Cork, said that although he had only recently returned to home soil from a US-based internship at a major Irish multinational, the prospect of moving back across The Atlantic to find permanent work would be as much a necessity as an option by the time he is conferred with a degree in fall of next year.

"There's a much brighter economic outlook overseas," the young globe-trotter told IrishCentral.

"There are some jobs here, but it generally makes sense for people to go where work is more plentiful, and the American can-do attitude is a big draw for many young Irish that are tired of the picture of endless doom and gloom that's pervaded here for years."

And although Time Magazine's European Editor Catherine Mayer recently reported to readers that in conversation with the ESRI, a leading Irish think-tank, she had been informed that the body didn't necessarily view emigration as a negative factor, that view is not commonly shared by many young people themselves who don't predict an imminent return to Irish turf even once things have picked up economically back home.

"Mayer's comments displayed a peculiar kind of naivete that seems to be contagious among policy-makers, particularly in Ireland," Hinds, a final Business Information Systems (BIS) student at a Cork university, said.

"This belief that when things come right everybody will suddenly flock back to Cork, Dublin, or wherever else they came from just isn't one that's borne out by previous waves of emigration," the computer student told this website, before adding, "I know that if I find work overseas after I graduate there's a strong chance that that's where I'll remain."