Supporting more students than ever
Philip Connolly, Director of Services with Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) tells eolas Magazine how SUSI is broadening its remit to support more higher education students than ever.
SUSI is Ireland’s national awarding authority for further and higher education grants. A business unit of City of Dublin ETB, SUSI administers student funding in line with legislation set out by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS).
Established in 2012 to replace 66 regional awarding authorities, SUSI created, for the first time, a single, centralised awarding authority for student funding in Ireland. SUSI’s mission is to empower students to transform their lives through tertiary education and since 2012, has processed over 1.37 million applications, awarded over one million grants to students, and paid over €4 billion in funding.
Now in its 14th year of operations, SUSI’s commitment to supporting students in further and higher education has strengthened as its remit expands beyond the Student Grant Scheme. SUSI administers funding for specified part-time courses, tertiary education programmes, the PLC Bursary for Displaced Persons Ukraine Scheme and the International Protection Student Scheme and is the paying authority for DFHERIS scholarships and bursaries including the All Ireland Scholarship. SUSI also assists in the delivery of the 1916 Bursary following receipt in 2023 of Ministerial consent under the Education and Training Boards Act 2013.
The 1916 Bursary is a key element of the National Access Plan. This plan sets out a strategy to achieve equity of access, participation and success in higher education with the aim to increase the diversity of the student body and support student success.
Co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through DFHERIS, the 1916 Bursary aims to encourage participation and success by students from the most socio-economically disadvantaged and most under-represented groups in higher education.
The Bursary is a financial award to support a student’s undergraduate study on either a full or part-time basis. Each participating college has a limited number of bursaries which are awarded to the eligible applicants that present the greatest need. Applicants are required to meet financial, target group and college entry eligibility to be considered for a Bursary.
Commenting on SUSI’s involvement in the 1916 Bursary Philip Connolly, Director of Services with SUSI says: “We are always exploring ways to innovate and enhance our service so that students can quickly and easily access funding and are delighted to expand our services by supporting more students in higher education through the 1916 Bursary. By collaborating with DFHERIS, the HEA and the higher education institutions (HEIs), we share our unique experience and insights on the administration of student grant funding and together deliver an excellent service for applicants across Ireland.”
By harnessing its wealth of experience and knowledge in the administration of student grant funding, SUSI has helped to enhance the Bursary’s end to end application process. Connolly adds: “Placing the student at the heart of our service, we have streamlined the application process and implemented procedures that help to ensure students receive their supports as early as possible.”
He continues: “We understand the need to create an application process for students in a format that is sustainable, inclusive, accessible and easy to understand. To do this we drew on our expertise across a number of key areas including grant operations, payments, ICT, governance, training and customer care.”
SUSI worked collaboratively with all stakeholders to ensure the successful operational planning and execution of the timelines which resulted in an efficient and student focused service delivery.
Recognising the students’ need for an accessible and convenient way to submit an application, SUSI collaborated with a technology partner to develop a solution which enables the student to complete the application process digitally. From the beginning, this collaboration required innovative thinking to quickly test ideas and gather early feedback. This approach saved time and resources by allowing SUSI to quickly identify a solution with prebuilt components as the preferred solution. Designed with user experience at its core, the solution enables self-service functionality. This reduces the administrative burden on the applicant by enabling them to directly upload documents to support their application.
The solution also enables the management of the end-to-end processing of all applications and payments swiftly and consistently through a centralised system. This brings further benefits as by being fully integrated, detailed reporting and analyses are readily available capabilities.
“As a public service, digital by default design is a core element of our strategic approach and this was fully adopted in our design of the 1916 Bursary application solution. We also utilised our strong governance procedures to ensure the security of all information shared with us. This was underpinned by the implementation of data sharing agreements and technical information sessions with the HEIs,” says Connolly.
SUSI processes have secured the direct payment of the grant to students’ bank accounts via electronic fund transfers to ensure eligible students receive their payment as quickly as possible.
The addition of a responsive customer care team highlights SUSI’s commitment to providing an applicant focused service. Applicants can contact the team with any queries regarding their application and receive information and updates in a timely manner.
Planning is now underway for academic year 2026/27 and as he looks ahead to the future Connolly concludes: “By building an agile organisation and harnessing cutting-edge digital systems, we are proactively leading the advances necessary to further improve service delivery for students. We look forward to building on these in the years to come and supporting more students in their education.”
W: www.susi.ie
