Tertiary grants

Press, 9 October 1979, Page 16

Tertiary grants

Sir. — The scholarship offered for an essay on Martin Luther King is generous. Do the sponsers realise that if it is won by a 7th form student outside university centres who wishes to attend university, the only beneficiary will be the Education Department? The winner will immediately become ineligible for any tertiary grant payments above $23 a week. Can the Education Department explain why students, who have worked hard for bursary and scholarship exams, must lose any benefit from these if they live outside main centres, while city students have a $4 increase in grants and are allowed to retain bursary and scholarship advantages?—Yours, etc., MARGARET WOOD, Westport. September 28, 1979. [Mr R. U. Roy, Regional Superintendent of Education, replies; “The scholarship offered for the best essay on Martin Luther King is $l2OO plus an atlas worth $5O. The school of the winner will receive audio-visual equipment valued at about $6OO. The 24 next best essays will attract an award of an atlas. The winner of the scholarship will not immediately become ineligible for the supplementary hardship grant, in addition to the basic grant-in-aid of $23 a week. When considering applications for supplementary hardship grants only that proportion of income from merit awards in excess of $6OO is taken into account. The criteria under the new tertiary assistance grants scheme enable the Department of Education to take account of the individual circumstances of each student such as the need for a student to live away from home, hostel or other "accommodation expenses, course related expenses, health costs, travel expenses and for students under 20 the ability of their parents to assist them. There is no reason why the winner of the scholarship should not qualify for a supplementary hardship grant if the additional grant is necessary to enable the winner to follow a prescribed course of study. The tertiary assistance grant scheme does not discriminate against students who are awarded bursaries and scholarships or who are required to leave home to follow their chosen course of study. The . flexibility provided in the scheme enables each student’s circumstances to be considered and awards made in line with each individual student’s needs.”]