Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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667. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 556 of 15 September 2020, if the same figure will be provided for all academic years from 2015 to 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9752/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The data provided in the table is the breakdown for all Higher Education students who were in receipt of a grant for the 2015/2016, 2016/2017 and 2018/2019 academic years.

The data in relation to the number of third level full-time students enrolled in colleges for the 2019/20 academic year are currently not available from the Higher Education Authority.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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671. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of persons who initially qualified for a SUSI grant in 2020 and subsequently had the grant withdrawn. [9828/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The principal support provided by the Department in financial terms is the Student Grant Scheme. Under the scheme, grant assistance is awarded to students attending an approved course in an approved institution who meet the prescribed conditions of funding, including those relating to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means.

The decision on eligibility for a student grant is a matter, in the first instance, for the centralised student grant awarding authority SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland) to determine.

The application process generally opens in late March/early April. When students apply for grant support, the application is assessed and the student is notified of the decision in principle. This allows the student an opportunity to appeal a decision before a final decision is made. In a small number of cases, some students don’t subsequently qualify for grant support. I can confirm that 743 students were initially awarded grants but have since had the grants withdrawn by SUSI for the 2020/21 academic year as of 22/2/2021.

The withdrawal of an awarded SUSI grant may be due to a number of reasons, such as:

- An applicant registers for a different course to the course that was previously awarded e.g. the initial decision in principle was in respect of an approved course and the student subsequently attends a course that does not qualify for support;

- An applicant was initially assessed as qualifying for a fee grant only for a course within Ireland and is now attending a course overseas or a PLC course within the State where fee grants are not payable;

- New information from the applicant or college is received advising that the applicant is not progressing to the year of the course that the grant was awarded to; and

- Post Assessment Quality Reviews carried out on applications for the current academic year discover that a student does not qualify for support.

If an individual applicant considers that she/he has been unjustly refused a student grant, or that the rate of grant awarded is not the correct one, she/he may appeal, in the first instance, to SUSI.

Where an individual applicant has had an appeal turned down in writing by an appeals officer in SUSI and remains of the view that the scheme has not been interpreted correctly in his/her case, an appeal may be submitted to the independent Student Grants Appeals Board within the required timeframe (i.e. not later than 30 days after the notification of the determination of the appeals officer to the applicant). Such appeals can be made by the appellant on line via www.studentgrantappeals.ie.