I remind students who haven’t submitted their student grant funding applications for the 2016/2017 academic year to do so immediately, as the deadline for applications is this Friday, the 8th July.

SUSI, the national student grant awarding body, opened its online application system on the 5th April. To date they have received 70,000 applications for the 2016/2017 academic year. Any student who hasn’t yet submitted their application for the student grant should do so now.

I am encouraging students who are considering applying for a grant to go to the SUSI website, www.susi.ie, as soon as possible, check the eligibility criteria and submit their application before the deadline.

SUSI are expecting to receive about 110,000 applications for the 2016/2017 academic year.

Students this year are in a better position to those in previous years as they can find out if they are awarded grants before they receive their results and CAO offers, unlike previous years, where leaving cert students had to wait until late CAO offers and results came in before they were given their grants, in August.

This earlier grant application process will reduce the stress levels in college applications and decrease college drop-out rates because with a faster grant application and awarding system, students will be able to forward plan their finances and budget sooner.