The Sanctuary Scholarship for displaced Palestinians provides the following support:

• Full tuition fee coverage 
• An annual maintenance payment to help cover some of the costs of study
• An invitation to the ALL Student Welcome Programme (Orientation)
• Access to our post-entry supports including disability support, social events, as well as academic and financial guidance
• One to one support from UCD Access & Lifelong Learning

How are maintenance payment rates calculated?

The scholarship’s maintenance payment rate is calculated based on students’ home address as well as their status as either full-time or part-time students. 

Annual maintenance payment amounts:

Please note:The maintenance payment for Open Learning students will be on a pro-rata basis, depending on the number of modules taken.

How will the scholarships be allocated?

It is expected there will be up to 5 Sanctuary Scholarships for displaced Palestinians available for the 2025/26 academic year. 

Please note:  allocations and place numbers are subject to change, and are based on application numbers and support for continuing scholars. 

To be considered for a Sanctuary Scholarship for displaced Palestinians you need to:

• Have a low household income (less than €50,840 a year)
• Be a Displaced Palestinian Applicant living in Ireland (most likely having arrived in Ireland since October 2023)
• Provide supporting documentation which may include a Passport, Birth Certificate or ID Card 
• Have already applied to a course at UCD

Priority will be given to:

• Applicants with an offer to a UCD Undergraduate, Open Learning or University Access Programmes
• Applicants living in Direct Provision (IPAS) centres
• Applicants who have completed the UCD University Access Programme or who are progressing from UCD Open Learning
• Applicants with reckonable income of €27,400 or less

This scholarship is only intended for applicants who are not eligible for state fee support.For more information on state fee support, please see below.

Please note: PhD courses are not covered by this scholarship

The Sanctuary Scholarship at UCD is intended only for those who are not eligible for state fee support. If you are applying to an undergraduate course and you think you might be eligible for state fee support then you should pursue this option instead of this scholarship.

What is meant by state fee support?

Generally, this means that your fees are covered under the Free Fees Initiativeand that you can apply for (opens in a new window)the SUSI grant.

How do I know if I am eligible for state fee support?

There are two main criteria for state fee support eligibility: Your length of residency in the EU and your status type. 

You can Check Your Fee Status Online

Length of Residency

You need to have been tax resident in the EU for at least 3 of the last 5 years, prior to starting a course at UCD and be able to demonstrate this. You can demonstrate this by, for example, providing evidence of a Welfare payment for 3 of the last 5 years. 

If you have been in education for 3 of the last 5 years, a letter from the relevant institution stating dates of attendance would also be sufficient.  

You will also need to have a letter from the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) confirming that you come under at leastoneof the following categories:

• You have official Refugee status in the Republic of Ireland
• You are a family member of official refugees who are granted permission by the Minister for Justice and Law Reform to enter the Republic of Ireland and to reside in the Republic of Ireland
• You have leave to reside in the Republic of Ireland on humanitarian grounds i.e. "Humanitarian leave to remain in the State”
• You have permission to remain in the Republic of Ireland as a family member of an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen and have the classification "4EUFam" on your GNIB card
• The Minister for Justice has granted you permission to remain following a determination not to make a deportation order
• You were granted ‘subsidiary protection with permission to reside in the State’

Check Your Fee Status

To apply for the Sanctuary Scholarship you must first apply to a course at UCD

• Your course application and scholarship application will be assessed entirely independently of one another.
• For details on how to apply to a course at UCD, please see the UCD Admissions Website.
• You should indicate your status (e.g. international protection, refugee etc...) in your sanctuary scholarship application.
• Applying to or being awarded a Sanctuary Scholarship does not make you exempt from the general entry requirements of a course. All entry requirements must still be met, this includes the English language requirements of the course.

For further information or for help with applying to a course please contact us at (opens in a new window)all@ucd.ie

How to Apply

1. Complete an Online Application Form:

• • You can access the application form on the UCD Scholarship Application System
  • Login to your UCD Connect account (You should have created this when applying for a course at UCD).
  • Once you have logged in click on start a new application.
  • Then click on the application tab at the top of the page.
  • Click on Cothrom Na Feinne Scholarship Applications.
  • Click Cothrom Na Feinne - Sanctuary Scholarship, you should then be able to start your application. Download: Step by step instructions on how to apply

2.Submit the following Supporting Documentation: 

1.Relevant financial documentation to evidence a household income* of €50,840 or less for 2024. Relevant documents include:

• 2024 Statement of Payments from the Department of Social Protection and or
• 2024 Tax Statement of Liability from the Revenue
• Please note if you have been residing in Ireland for less than 12 months then please provide the relevant financial documents for the period of time you have been here.

2. Please provide supporting documentation to evidence you are a Displaced Palestinian Applicant living in Ireland (most likely having arrived in Ireland since October 2023). Relevant documents include:

• Supporting documentation which may include a Passport, Birth Certificate or ID Card and or
• Copy of a Department of Justice and Equality letter confirming your permission to reside in Ireland  OR  a copy of a document containing your Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Services  (opens in a new window)(INIS) Person ID Number

*Household income includes the total income for you and the members in your household (spouse, partner, dependents) who are receiving an income from employment and or social welfare payments. For information on accessing supporting financial documents please see useful links below.

Application Timeline:

• Open date for applications for 2025/26 academic year is Friday 2nd May 2025
• Closing date for applications isFriday 18th July 2025.
• Late or incomplete applications will not be considered.
• Application Assessment will take place after the deadline during August and September
• Outcomes will be communicated by email during early to mid September.

As the number of UCD Sanctuary Scholarships we have on offer are limited, applicants are advised to also explore any other possible avenues for financial support while awaiting their application outcome. Please see the  Useful Links  below.

Privacy Statement UCD Sanctuary Scholarship

If you are unsure of something or need help at any stage of the application process, please get in touch with us by emailing (opens in a new window)all@ucd.ie, referencing the Sanctuary Scholarship - Displaced Palestinians 

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

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.