What should be a time of learning and pushing intellectual boundaries is,for all too many students, a time of part-time work and cramming, studentstell Marie O'Halloran
The 5 per cent increase in student maintenance grants announced last week by the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, will be worth about €3 a week extra to Ailíse O'Donnell.
The 22-year-old UCC civil engineering student from Leap in west Cork lives in student accommodation during term-time and last year her grant of €2,250 worked out at about €60 a week for the academic year.
She looks with some envy at classmates who chose jobs or vocational training over third-level education. "They are all building their bungalows, driving Mondeos and getting engaged and here I am at 22, still asking my mother for money."
The eldest of four, with two other siblings at college, she chose Cork because "it is far cheaper than Dublin. In Dublin rent is about twice what it is here."
Payments of student supports and fees will cost the Department of Education about €350 million this year and weary taxpayers might feel that students should "live with it" or "get a job". But Ailíse points out that, "I will be paying taxes in two years' time. It's in the State's interests to educate its students. People like Bill Clinton have emphasised the importance of education and the so-called Celtic Tiger was due to the well-educated workforce. It is in the State's interest to have top-notch graduates."
There are people who could potentially be future doctors, lawyers, accountants or engineers, but might not go to college because of the costs involved. "It is much more appealing to have a job than to spend four years living on tins of spaghetti hoops and stir-in pasta."
She also works part-time as do most students, she says. "I've no choice but to work." Babysitting on Saturday nights for about €20 and working perhaps one afternoon a week in a solicitor's office, Ailíse is working for the summer in the solicitor's office to save for the coming academic year.
She finds personally that working in the office once a week puts a structure on her day and forces her to organise her study because of that time she misses. But many students have to do night work in such places as bars, work which disrupts their studies.
Suzanne O'Gorman agrees with that sentiment. The 19-year-old applied languages student at the University of Limerick goes home to Cashel, Co Tipperary, at weekends, working in a bar every Friday night during term-time and during the day on Saturdays to make ends meet. She earns about €60, but she says: "I'm tired going back on Sunday night and because I was working every weekend I couldn't study." Asked if working had an impact on her results, she says, "If I hadn't been working I would have had more time to study."
Suzanne is on a "half-grant". She receives a payment of about €390 every three months, while her rent is about €260 a month. The grant payment "is a little help but it's fairly crap", she says. "How much has inflation gone up and rents compared to the grant? The increase in fees is unbelievable. That's the guts of €1,000."
With the 5 per cent grant increase and a 7 per cent increase in the income thresholds for eligibility, the Minister also announced a fees increase of about 6 per cent and an increase in capitation fees from €396 to €670 for registration, exam costs and services.
But it's not just the money that is affecting students. College life has also changed student habits. Continuous assessments and modular courses mean exams every couple of months. "Students are not going out and they're not getting involved in college clubs or activities," says Ailíse.
Ailíse admits it was always her intention to go to college, and she is willing to make sacrifices for four years because once she graduates, at 25, she will be a qualified engineer. But she has friends doing medicine and accountancy who will have to do internships and apprenticeships before qualifying. "They are 30 before they have any sign of a half-decent salary."
Tommy Reidy is UCC students' union president and a grant recipient. The 22-year-old science student of plant microbial bio-technology gets a grant of €1,750 in three quarterly payments. The Castlegregory, Co Kerry, student welcomed the grant increase but says it is "nothing like enough". Rents have gone up by about €20 a week, he says. The standard was around €70 a week and the students union said nobody should have to pay more than €85 but some landlords were "rounding up" to €100.
Students are forced to take jobs, and he rejects suggestions that they might not be studying even if they were not working. "They have continuous assessment and four exams every two months. Many want to do post-graduate and they have to get a first-class degree or a 2:1 to qualify."
The Government had stopped paying exam fees for most students and "effectively heaped the cost onto students". To hit at students like this was "a crime", he said, and he stressed the student body was not prepared to take it. It may be an autumn of discontent for the State's third-level students.