Samuel Riggs and Sinéad Baker
A combination of increased demand on the Student Hardship Fund and cuts to the Student Assistance Fund means that students promised financial aid for the second half of the year will either receive significantly less money or none at all.
The Student Hardship Fund, which allocates a bursary on the basis of assessed need, has come under pressure due to cuts to its funding and an increasing reliance on its services by students. As a result payments to students in Hilary term that were promised at the start of the academic year will not be able to be fulfilled as promised. The University Times has learned that the fund may now be forced to reevaluate the number of students it allocates this bursary to, or else decrease the amount of money each student receives.
It is expected that the current allocation model will be reassessed, with the possibility of single-term-only payments being considered. At present, students who are accepted to the fund early in the first term are eligible for two payments, one in Michaelmas term and another in Hilary term, and those who apply late in the Michaelmas term receive one payment in Hilary term.
The fund has come under increased reliance on fundraising activities and donations, including the annual Raising and Giving (RAG) week, organised by Trinity Ents. Last year’s RAG week raised €25,000 for the fund, with every euro raised being matched by the Alumni Office. This year’s event will take place from 12th to 16th January 2015.
The Student Hardship Fund is a combined fund which consists of money from the Student Assistance Fund (SAF), funding from the College itself and other such fundraising activities. The SAF is allocated to every third-level institution in Ireland by the Higher Education Authority and is a subsidiary of the European Social Fund. This year, the funding given to the Trinity Student Assistance Fund was cut by twenty-two per cent, from €100,000 to €78,000. Money given to the Hardship Fund from College amounts to €32,000 each year and this has seen no increase or decrease since its inception.
Speaking to The University Times, the College Senior Tutor, Dr Claire Laudet, contextualised the financial assistance crisis, confirming that by now her office has “received more applications than for the whole of last year”.
“As some of our resources, such as the ESF Student Assistance Fund, have been reduced by over 20%, we may need to introduce a closing date in the New Year or to reduce the amounts to be awarded for the second semester.”
TCDSU Welfare Officer Ian Mooney commented that the situation represents “the realisation of worst-case scenario that student leaders have spent years endeavouring to impress upon leaders in College and in government”.
“Whatever way you look at it, this is a bad day for students”, he said.
He continued “the possibility that the College may have to renege on pledged assistance is a concerning one indeed. Until we have full clarity, the Union will continue to provide financial advice and short-term assistance to those in need, while lobbying for urgent investment in supports”.
30 per cent of the money allocated by the Trinity SAF goes to the Student Hardship fund, with the other 70 per cent allocated to the Trinity Access Programme (TAP), which aims to provide access to the College for under-represented groups. However the number of TAP students in Trinity has risen from one hundred in 2008 to nine hundred at the beginning of the academic year 2014/2015. Despite this increase, the funding for the programme from the College has remained same and the money from the SAF has gone down by 20 per cent.
Commenting on the importance of the fund to access students, Lisa Keane, who is in charge of post-entry progression and alumni development within TAP, told The University Times: “What we have available is decreasing and decreasing. We are living in a time of extreme hardship for students, and this fund is aimed at levelling the playing field.”
At a Q&A event organised by the Phil and Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union in September, the Provost committed to maintaining the funds that the Student Hardship Fund receives from College “in proportion to the number of students from non-traditional backgrounds” and to find a way “not to rely on state-funding, because it is only going to reduce”. He also mentioned that there may be ways that the College can ensure that the proportion of money allocated to the Student Hardship Fund by the College will be in line with the number of students availing of the fund itself.
Photo by Eavan McLoughlin for The University Times
