• Students can check here to see if maintenance cheques have come in from their County Council.
• If a student is getting maintenance payments they must first pay the student centre levy (€158 in 2011/12) before they can receive any maintenance cheques. This is because the €158 levy officially registers a student to the University.
• Maintenance cheques are usually sent to UCD three times a year by the local grant authorities in September-January-April. Please note that these are only approximate dates.
• If a student's grant application is still pending approval, maintenance cheques will not be generated by local authorities for those students until later in the year.
• Maintenance cheques will not be posted to students unless they are on official ERASMUS or on placement away from UCD. Written confirmation is required from the programme director.
• Maintenance cheques must be collected by the student in person. Students must hold a valid student card.

• If a student has applied for a grant to their Local Authority/County Council the Local Authority/County Council will send the student a letter that must be signed by the Student Desk in the Tierney Building in UCD. This letter confirms that they are a registered student for that academic year.
• The student returns this signed letter to their Local Authority/County Council, along with all other necessary paperwork.
• If the student's grant application is approved, the Local Authority/County Council will send out a grant approval letter to the student.
• The student must bring the grant approval letter into the Student desk in the Tierney Building. If this letter is not brought in the student will not be processed for a grant.
  (NOTE: This letter is different to the registration letter that students have signed in UCD and send back to their local authorities) the grant approval contains the words- You have been approved for a grant
• The Fees and Grants office credits the students account for the amount shown on the grant approval letter and sends an invoice to the Local Authority/County Council for payment.
• If a refund is due (if you have already paid fees), once the Local Authority/County Council has paid UCD, a refund will be automatically processed. Please be aware that invoicing Local Authorities / County Councils take place a number of times each year. Only when payment for your specific fees have been received are refunds processed and this make take some time depending on the particular invoicing cycle of UCD and the relevant funding authority.

Higher Education Grants are awarded at Undergraduate and Graduate level.
In addition to free tuition at undergraduate level, the principal support available is a means-tested maintenance grant. Depending on the programme you are pursuing, you may be eligible for a grant under one of these schemes:-

• The Higher Education Grants Scheme, which applies to University Degree programmes.
• The Vocational Education Committees' Scholarship Scheme, which applies to add-on degrees where students have already pursued Certificate/Diploma level (level 6 & 7) programmes. It also applies to certain programmes in Northern Ireland.

When you apply for a grant, the income that is assessed must be at or below a certain amount (the "reckonable income").

For 2011/12 academic year, the reckonable income limits (based on income for the tax year 2010) are:

*It is important to note that the full Students Service Charge is paid for you where income is at or below this level

Where 2 or more children (or the applicant's parent) are attending a full time recognised programme in Further or Higher Education, the reckonable income limits may be increased by €4,980 where there are 2 such children, €9,960 where there are 3 such children and so on, by increments of €4,980.

Grants are paid at either of two rates:

• the non adjacent rate is payable to mature students and where the grantholder's normal residence is more than 45 kilometers from the college attended.
• the adjacent rate is payable where the grantholder's residence is 45 kilometers or less from the college attended.

For 2011/12 the highest non adjacent rate of grant is €3,120. The highest adjacent rate of grant is €1250. Lower rates of grant are payable, depending on the reckonable income.

Special Rates of Maintenance Grant ("Top-Up Grant")

Grantholders who satisfy certain conditions may be eligible for what is known as a "top-up grant", an amount additional to the ordinary grant.

You can get full details of the grant schemes outlined above from the Local Authorities and Vocational Education Committees. Details will also be available on the Department of Education and Science website www.education.ie

First Year Undergraduate Grant-holding Students:
At, or prior to, registration students must submit to the Student Desk (Ground Floor, Tierney Building, Belfield) official notification from a Grant Authority of the award of a grant.

Continuing Undergraduate and all Graduate students:
Students registering as grant-holders for the first time must submit official notification from a Grant Authority of the award of a grant to the Student Desk, Ground Floor, Tierney Building, Belfield, UCD, Dublin 4.

All Undergraduate and Graduate Students in receipt of grants from Irish Local Authorities and VECs are required to pay, prior to registration, a minimum of the Student Centre levy of €158. This levy must be paid to the bank using the bank giro fee payment form, or UCD online payment facility. Students who do not pay by the due date will be liable for fines.

Graduate Students who have already paid a deposit towards their fees and who are registering for a programme where the total tuition fee (up to maximum fee payable, see below) will be paid by a grant authority need not pay the Student Centre levy as the deposit will cover this payment. (Please note: a refund of the excess of the deposit over the levy will be made only after payment has been received from the grant authority).

N.B. For Graduate students on 'subsequent year' fees, where the total programme fee, as published on this website, is less than €2,000 the levy is halved.

Important note for continuing students in respect of grants 'rolling' from year to year

It is a student's primary responsibility to ensure that they have full funding arrangements in place for all their relevant fees for the duration of their programme.

If a student was in receipt of a Higher Education Grant for the academic year 2010/11 and is progressing to their next year of study or are to register to a graduate programme for 2011/12, having completed an undergraduate programme in 2010/11, the UCD Fees and Grants Office will provisionally apply a grant credit to their student account pending payment from their grant-awarding body.

This is done in order to allow grant-aided students to register in September 2011 without paying full fees. Situations can occur whereby grant credit in anticipation of funding being received is applied to student's records and can be removed again at a later point when it has been duly processed by our fees and grants office that funding is not applicable to particular students.

If the Fees and Grant Office are subsequently informed that a student is not entitled to a grant, this credit will be removed from their account. A student's fee liability will then show on their account as fees outstanding. Any student who has been informed that their grant is not to be renewed for the academic year 2011/12 should contact the Fees and Grant Office to ensure that their student account is accurate.

We do endeavour to ensure that this information is placed on student's records in a timely fashion, but it is dependent on information being received from local authorities and county councils. The timeframe for this information being received can vary widely from authority to authority.

Students have the primary responsibility at all times to ensure that they have the correct and complete funding arrangements in place for all fees pertaining to their programme.

Students qualifying for an Irish Local Authority/County Council or VEC grant covering one half of the programme fee must pay half of total fee prior to registration.

The maximum fee payable by Irish Local Authorities under the Higher Education Grants Scheme for Graduate students in session 2011/12 is €6,270.

Where this is less than the total programme fee, the student must pay the balance of the fee due prior to registration. If the balance is in excess of €2,000, it may be paid in either two or three instalments depending on your programme. Fines will be imposed for late payment of the balance.

Please note that if you have already paid your fees and have subsequently been approved for a grant you will only get a refund once your Local Authority/County Council has paid UCD.

• When the Local Authority/County Council has paid UCD your refund will be automatically processed and posted to your home address.
• Be sure to bring in your grant approval letter to the student desk in the Tierney Building. If you don't bring in this letter you will not be processed for a grant,
  (NOTE: This letter is different to the registration letter that students have signed in UCD and send back to their local authorities) the grant approval contains the words - You have been approved for a grant


• FAQ: On SIS Student web it says that the grant has already paid for my fees. When can I get my refund?
  
  Answer: When a student brings in their grant approval letter, the Fees & Grants Office credits your fees account with the payment which is due from the Local Authority/County Council or county council. Although this figure will be visible on your SIS account this is provisional credit and will only be refunded once the Local Authority/County Council has paid UCD. Depending on the Local Authority/County Council, this process may take a considerable length of time.
  Provisional Credit is registered in this way to prevent fee bill being generated and sent to students who are receiving a grant.

• Government of Ireland Awards (for students in Humanities and Social Sciences) – www.irchss.ie
• Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering & Technology – www.ircset.ie

• UCD Ad Astra research Scholarships
  Administered by the Office of the Dean of Doctoral Studies and Graduate Training, University College Dublin.
• Tutor/ Demonstrator fee concession (for those working as tutors or demonstrators for a minimum of 6 hours a week in term) This must be certified by the Head of School on an application form available at http://www.ucd.ie/registry/adminservices/fees/forms.htm or directly from the Administrative Services - Fees & Grants.
• Remission of tuition fees for holders of IRCHSS Awards - please note that Student levy must be paid by the student.