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Student Accommodation Support Fund

Student Accommodation Assistance for Traveller, Roma, and Care Experienced Students

Funding available for academic year 2024/2025 only

The student accommodation assistance is open for Traveller, Roma, and Care-experienced students in higher education.

To apply for this funding assistance, students must apply by filling out the Google Form (link below).

The closing date to apply is the 4th of February 2025.

Once you have submitted the application form you will be contacted by the Traveller & Roma Access Officer through email about the supporting documentation required for this funding application. 

Please note, that to be eligible for the Student Assistance Fund:

  • Students must be a member of one or more of the following groups:

- Traveller Community
- Roma Community
- Have experience of the care system between the ages of 16-18 and are not eligible for an aftercare allowance.

And:

  • Students must be living independently for the purpose of attending third level education; this includes students renting away from home/principal primary residence during the academic year with leases covering up to 12 months duration.
  • Students must not be in receipt of another accommodation support e.g., HAP, Rent Supplement or other housing support.
  • Students can reside in on or off-campus student specific accommodation, private rental accommodation, house shares or ‘digs’ accommodation.
  • Students must not be already in receipt of the Student Accommodation Assistance for the 24/25 academic year. There should only be one successful application per course year, per student.
  • Eligible students must be registered on higher education courses of not less than one year in duration.
  • In addition, students must also meet the eligibility criteria outlined in section 2.1 of the SAF Guidelines.

(opens in a new window)Click here to apply

(opens in a new window)Privacy Statement

Privacy Notice

1. About this Notice
UCD Access & Lifelong Learning is a unit within UCD with responsibility for widening access and supporting diverse student cohorts, including students with disabilities, mature students, part-time learners, and students from communities experiencing disadvantage. UCD is the controller under GDPR for the data processed as part of the UCD Future You Mentoring Programme, this statement sets out how and why we process your data as part of the UCD Future You Mentoring Programme, your rights in relation to this processing and how you can exercise them.

UCD confirm that it will obtain and process your data in a lawful, fair and transparent manner. We will collect your data for a specified, explicit and legitimate purpose and will not further process your data in a manner incompatible with the original purpose. Furthermore, UCD will ensure that the data we collect from you will be adequate, relevant and not excessive. In addition, it will be accurate and up-to-date and we will keep it for no longer than is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. We undertake to ensure that it is kept safe and secure.

2. How we collect your personal data?
The data we collect from you will be used by the UCD only in accordance with the purposes outlined in this privacy notice. We will collect your data in the following manner:

• Initial electronic application form for all applicants to the programme
• Electronic form for successful applicants’ full registration to the programme, feedback on the programme, attendance at UCD Future You Mentoring sessions and events, and follow up progression to further and higher education information.

3. Information about you we will process and the purposes for which we process them

Data fields collected/processed Purpose
Full name, date of birth, gender Identification for communication & participation in the programme
Home address To contact you to seek feedback on the programme and to inform you of upcoming events and scholarships
School, class/year Identification for communication & participation in the programme
Email address To contact you to seek feedback on the programme and to inform you of upcoming events and scholarships
Your attitudes toward school & college We seek this feedback at the start, middle & end of your participation to assess & report on the impact of the programme
Information about your family's education & financial circumstances To ascertain if eligible for the HEAR scheme (Higher Education Access Route)
Information about disability/illness To put supports in place for you to ensure your full participation in the programme 
Junior Certificate subjects & results There is no need to provide this information
Leaving Certificate subjects you intend to take at Higher Level To select applicants for the programme
Parental consent and contact information To ensure that your parents are happy for you to participate in the programme
Parental photo/media consent Optional - to give UCD All permission to use your image for promotional material relating to the programme

4. The data collected in this form will be shared with the following areas of the University:
UCD Access & Lifelong Learning– to contact you during your participation in the programme, to notify you of upcoming events & scholarships, to report on the impact of UCD’s outreach programmes and seek further funding (anonymised data only).
UCD Admissions– in order to identify you as a former UCD Future You Mentoring participant so UCD Access & Lifelong Learning can offer you supports if you accept an offer to study in UCD.
The Office of the UCD Registrar and Deputy President– to report on UCD Access & Lifelong Learning’s outreach strategy.

If you have any queries or complaints in relation to the use of your personal data you can contact UCD’s Data Protection Officer at the following address:

Data Protection Officer
UCD
Belfield
Dublin 4
(opens in a new window)(opens in a new window)gdpr@ucd.ie

5. Legal basis for collecting your data
The data we collect about you will be used where it is necessary for the performance of tasks we carry out as part of the UCD Future You Mentoring Programme. Should we require your consent for any specific use of your personal information, we will collect it at the appropriate time and you can withdraw this at any time.

The University will ensure that your data is processed fairly and lawfully in keeping with the principles of data protection. For the purposes outlined in this privacy notice your personal data will be processed on the basis ofConsent.

If you choose not to consent to collection and processing of your data where it is necessary for the performance of the tasks we carry out as part of the UCD Future You Mentoring Programme it will not be possible for you to continue to be a participant.

6. How we store and secure your data
Any data we collect from you will be stored confidentially and securely. The University is committed to ensuring all accesses to, uses of, and processing of University data is performed in a secure manner.
In keeping with the data protection principles we will only store your data for as long as is necessary. For the purposes described here we will store your data for –

We will retain your data for operational purposes until the dates below. After this period the details that you have provided will be anonymised.

Students who start the Future You Mentoring programme in January 2020: data retained until February 2022.

Students who start the Future You Mentoring programme in January 2021: data retained until February 2023.

Students who start the Future You Mentoring programme in January 2022: data retained until February 2024.

When we store your personal data on our systems the data will be stored on the University premises on secure IT platform.

7. Details of the third parties with whom we share personal data
UCD will never share your personal data with any third parties.

We will use anonymised data from feedback and evaluation of the programme for the purposes of reporting on UCD Access & Lifelong Learning’s outreach strategy and to seek additional funding for the programme.

8. What are your rights?
You will have the following rights over the way we process your personal data.

Right of Access

You have the right to request a copy of the personal data we are processing about you and to exercise that right easily and at reasonable intervals.

Consent
You have the right to withdraw your consent where that is the legal basis of our processing.

Rectification
You have the right to have inaccuracies in personal data that we hold about you rectified.

Erasure
You have the right to have your personal data deleted where we no longer have any justification for retaining it subject to exemptions such as the use of pseudonymised data for scientific research.

Object
You have the right to object to processing your personal data if:
• We have processed your data based on a legitimate interest or for the exercise of the public tasks of the University if you believe the processing to be disproportionate or unfair to you.
• The personal data was processed for the purposes of direct marketing or profiling related to direct marketing.
• We have processed the personal data for scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes unless the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out for reasons of public interest.

Restriction
You have the right to restrict the processing of your personal data if:
• You are contesting the accuracy of the personal data;
• The personal data was processed unlawfully;
• You need to prevent the erasure of the personal data in order to comply with legal obligations;
• You have objected to the processing of the personal data and wish to restrict the processing until a legal basis for continued processing has been verified.

Portability
Where it is technically feasible you have the right to have a readily accessible machine readable copy of your data transferred or moved to another data controller where we are processing your data based on your consent and if that processing is carried out by automated means.

[If you would like to exercise any of the above rights, please see our contact details below.]


9. Contact
You will have the following rights over the way we process your personal data.

If you have any queries relating to the processing of your personal data for the purposes outlined above or you wish to make a request in relation to your rights you can contact:

Outreach Officer
UCD Access & Lifelong Learning
Level 1, James Joyce Library Building,
University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, D04 V1W8
Phone: 01 716 7123
Email: all@ucd.ie

If you wish to make a complaint or escalate an issue relating to your rights you can contact the Data Protection Officer at (opens in a new window)(opens in a new window)gdpr@ucd.ie
Finally is you are not satisfied with the information we have provided to you in relation to the processing of your data or you can also make a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner via the link in their website (opens in a new window)(opens in a new window)Making a Complaint to the DPC.

UCD Access and Lifelong Learning

University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
T: +353 1 716 7123