The months of August and September for returning students are particularly brutal. Upfront financial pressures leave students stretched thin between rent, academic materials, and transportation for their commute.
Those who can live at home avoid enormous costs, while others– most of whom are international students– shoulder thousands in deposits and rent. Private rental is, The University Times’ recent survey sent to Trinity students revealed, the heaviest upfront cost for students entering the new academic year.
In Rachel Slaymaker, Janez Kren, and Kate Devane’s 2025 report for the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), research reveals that while rental inflation in Dublin has remained moderate, averaging 1.3–1.5% for ongoing tenancies, high base rents combined with these steady increases continue to strain affordability for students. Annual hikes can exceed 14%, Dublin sees smaller jumps but still faces long-term upward pressure on living costs.
66.6% of UT’s surveyed students reported that they noticed an increase in rent or accommodation costs compared to last year.
These rising living costs, as reported by the Irish Times, has created severe student accommodation shortages, and the poor transport links are limiting their impact and risking higher dropout rates. With over 30,000 students lacking purpose-built housing in 2023–24, many are forced into an expensive private rental market, heightening financial pressure.
The return to college, often after a financial break during the holidays, is an immediate hit of deposits for students– rent, books and equipment. And for those in private rentals, the excess costs of equipment, transport, and other deposits in the beginning of the year, becomes incredibly stressful.
In the survey, one student reported that the combined expense of accommodation and commute is “basically stopping [them] from enjoying life outside of academics.” Other Trinity students indicated the same, as over 80.7% of students noted that they had either somewhat or significantly cut back on the essentials of food, travel, and leisure, due to college costs. “Well over half of my money this past year has gone towards academic fees and housing costs”, one Trinity student notes.
What would likely be easing these costly burdens– grants and aid— is seemingly insignificant if not absent from students’ experiences. 67.9% of the surveyed students reported that “no”, current student supports (grants, subsidies, and accommodation policies) are not adequate.
“Create some proper scholarships, I beg”, one student wrote, who “went to [their] tutor to ask for a financial aid of some sort,” worried about affording tuition as a non-EU student, “find out there is no financial aid or scholarships after first year (other than Schols).”
And it isn’t merely the cost of the fees, but the deadlines and ‘having to pay upfront’ another student added, who had no family support or eligibility for a SUSI grant. It “is a big pressure especially with the threat of being withdrawn” they wrote. This financial threat is ultimately cornering students into a choice between making financial sacrifices, or risk losing their place in college.
The weight of fees falls on the shoulders of students without familial support; “I would want the fees to be significantly reduced as I cannot pay for them, but due to my parents I don’t get grants,” stresses one student, “I am the one paying my fees, not my parents.”
For the SUSI, or Student Universal Support Ireland Grant, application income criteria states that “your total reckonable household income must fall below specific income thresholds”. But for the students who receive no familial financial support, those household incomes hold no leverage in their economic trajectories. “Parents income should not be considered or not as much as it is for students who are applying for grants and supports’, one student writes, and ‘many students fund college themselves but do not receive financial aid due to their parents income.”
If they qualify based on their household income, students then must face the hurdle of the “earning limit”, which restricts those in part or full time jobs. One student advocated for removing such earning limits so they “could work over summer without worrying about losing my grant.”
Only 17.5% of student responses in the survey indicated that they use the SUSI grant to cover the upfront costs. More so, the majority of students chose multiple sources at once– between savings, part-time job, family support, bank loans, and grants– suggests that no single source of income is sufficient in Dublin’s student economic canopy.
Also not financially compensated, but equally taxing, is academic equipment. Respondents reported that they expect to spend over €50 on average in the beginning of the year, relying on second-hand books, library copies, or shared materials to cut costs.
Students called for a general “provision of academic materials”, and for reading lists to be “available sooner to adequately budget, source, and reserve from libraries,” many of which are not fully available in libraries. Students therefore have to source externally, which becomes difficult with multiple modules, and a reading/equipment list for each module. “For a single module dropping €50+ on books isn’t sustainable”, another student writes.
“I can’t afford the big textbooks,” one student adds, “and it makes it really hard to access information outside of the lecture materials provided. This makes exam times hard because I can’t access the materials referenced in lectures.”
Students showed frustration at broken promises, wishing that the Irish government “follow their previous promises and eliminate fees”, that which The Irish Times reported the Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless saying he “fully intends” to reduce the “student contribution fee over the lifetime of the Government.” The same article notes that the Third-level fees were “reduced to €2,000 as a once-off cost-of-living measure three years ago and was rolled over for two further years.” As of this year, fees are set to increase again, “as things stand”.
What many predict would result from a government investment in transportation infrastructure, affordable housing, and academic pathways, would be “regional growth” and a prevention of “brain drain”, Maggie Cusack notes.
Targeted effort on behalf of the government would not just be for the sake of its students, but for the sake of Ireland’s future generations. More so, it would obviate students from running into preventable financial brick walls. It would prevent many from running towards their last resort, towards hours of commute and no leisure. No running would be required, instead, students would finally be able to extrapolate the “college experience” right from where they stand.
