SUSI, the national student grant awarding authority, is urging students who have not yet submitted their application for student funding in academic year 2020-21 to do so now by applying online at www.susi.ie. The priority closing date for new applications is this Thursday, July 9.

“I encourage all further and higher education students planning to apply for funding for the new academic year to check out susi.ie and begin the process now. Students who submit their application on or before July 9 will receive priority processing,” advised Eleanor Murphy, SUSI’s Communications and Customer Services Manager.

“Our aim is to have as many grant application decisions as possible with students before the start of the new academic year. The sooner we receive the application, the sooner the student will receive an outcome,” she added.

Students do not need to have their Leaving Cert results, or to have accepted a course, in order to apply. They can simply supply details of the course they hope to study and can update their final course choice online at a later date.

SUSI, which is in its ninth year of operations, opened for applications for academic year 2020-21 on April 23. To date over 77,000 applications have been received from new and returning students with over 43,000 students already awarded funding.

SUSI will continue to accept applications for student funding after July 9, however these applications will not receive priority processing. On average, it takes approx. five weeks to process an application. Students who have applied for funding can track their application’s progress online through their SUSI account.

In the last academic year, SUSI processed almost 96,000 applications with over 76,000 students awarded funding.