General information about funding possibilities for people interested in taking CEESA next year are available here. This post is an update on grants and internal funding based on information provided by NUIM Graduate Studies office.
As most people probably know the government has cut funding to postgraduate students. What this means is that there will be no maintenance grant; however there should still be a grant for fees.
The threshold for eligibility has not yet been announced. It will hardly be higher than for the existing county council grants but it isn't yet clear if it will be basically the same or if it will be lower. There will be a new, centralised system for grants as of May 1st (which seems an inappropriate day for it somehow).
NUI Maynooth is looking at its own internal funding for Masters' students, which is at present very limited, and there should be an announcement over the next while. At present the main internal funding is the tuition bursary, which goes to the highest-ranked student (in terms of academic credentials) within the relevant department.
Details and updates are on the NUIM Graduate Studies website and the "Student Finance" site. We will also post updated information here as we get it.
In the meantime the most important facts are (a) the deadline for CEESA applications is April 30th; (b) if you are at all interested in doing postgraduate work next year you should register with PAC. It is a single €45 fee (which seemingly can be claimed back if you are on a grant etc.) that goes to run PAC, not the university, and entitles you to apply for any number of courses.
