Minister Humphreys announces new Income Disregard to increase access to UCD’s Cothrom na Féinne Scholarship
- Published on: 17 November 2023
- Last updated on: 4 January 2024
- initiative designed to support students with low incomes to access undergraduate studies
- €7,000 Disregard to help alleviate the financial barriers facing families in receipt of social welfare
Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys has today (17 November) announced that the UCD Cothrom na Féinne Scholarship will be subject to a disregard of €7,000 in respect of means tests for certain social welfare allowances.
The initiative is designed to support students on low incomes to access third level education and to alleviate the financial barriers facing families in receipt of social welfare.
Announcing the change today, Minister Humphreys said:
“I’m pleased today to announce a new income disregard of €7,000 per student that will be applied to UCD’s excellent Cothrom na Féinne Scholarship programme.
“This disregard will contribute to providing equal access to students, by removing financial barriers facing families in receipt of social welfare.
“As we all know, the opportunity to participate in a full-time undergraduate programme is of immense benefit to students of all ages and backgrounds.
“It is key in terms of helping people build and develop their potential future career, as well their supporting their families and benefitting society as a whole.
“My government colleague, Minister Simon Harris, has made tremendous strides in ensuring there are more opportunities to enter third level education than ever before.
“So I’m delighted my Department of Social Protection can also play its part and I want to thank the team in UCD for working with us in delivering this positive initiative.”
UCD awarded 151 Cothrom na Féinne Scholarships in 2022 and it is planned to increase the number of awards to 200 by 2029.
Also welcoming the initiative, Dr Bairbre Fleming, Director of UCD’s Access and Lifelong Learning Centre, commented:
“UCD recognises that students on low-income face considerable additional challenges in accessing university.
“As Ireland’s No 1 university for inclusivity, The Cothrom Na Féinne Scholarship programme was launched to help remove some of the barriers that prevent students from diverse backgrounds from achieving a third-level education.
“All our scholars are from low-income families, with many parenting alone, family carers, or living with a disability.
“We are delighted that we now have the support of the Department of Social Protection in facilitating students on low incomes to be part of the scholarship programme.”
Also welcoming the news was Leona Rogers, a mother of two who received a Cothrom Na Féinne scholarship this year to study Children’s & General Nursing at UCD:
“The scholarship was an amazing gift for me.
“It will help me concentrate on my studies without always thinking about money.”
Cothrom Na Féinne Scholarships are open to first time entrants on low income, who have entered UCD via one the access admissions pathways and are a member of the HEA National Access Plan priority groups. Please go to: UCD Cothrom na Féinne Scholarship.
The programme is open to new entrants (incoming first year students) who have accepted an offer to study in a full-time undergraduate programme. Eligible applicants must come from a low income household, be a member of the HEA’s National Access Plan priority group and have entered UCD through one of their access admissions pathways. Scholarships range from €1,500 to €14,000 per annum and are awarded for the duration of the students’ undergraduate studies.
Notes
The purpose of the scholarship programme is to address the financial barriers associated with participation in higher education. The scholarships are funding solely by sustainable philanthropic support from UCD donors and aim to enable eligible students to participate fully in college life, to succeed and attain career success.
The first €7,000 in respect of these scholarships is fully disregarded (that is, income ignored) for social protection schemes, with the rest of any bursary assessed as per the standard rules for a scheme.
These scholarships aim to provide equity of access and academic success for the National Access Plan priority groups by removing financial barriers.
The current list of HEA priority groups included are:
- HEAR students
- DARE students
- students with a disability
- first-time mature students
- members of the Travelling community
- further education award holders
- lone parents who are in receipt of a means-tested social welfare payment
- ethnic minorities
- refugees, those with leave to remain, and international protection applicants
- students who have successfully completed a UCD Access Programme
Students with experience of the prison system, domestic violence, caregivers, and experience of the care system will be added this year.
The scholarships are funded from philanthropic sources with the aim of bolstering, rather than replacing, State support for vulnerable low-income students who are most distanced from third level education.