DCU launches Covid-19 emergency fund as university sees 183% increase in students seeking financial help

Some of the measures include once-off support for those in serious financial difficulty, technology to allow students to continue learning online and mental health support for vulnerable students.

The DCU Covid-19 Student Emergency Fund has been established and will enable the university to continue to support students across four priority areas:

• Maintaining Access scholarships for over 1,100 students and responding to increased demand expected next year due to record high levels of unemployment.
• Providing emergency and once-off support to students in serious financial difficulty due to Covid-19.
• Providing technology to ensure that students can pursue much of their learning online, as all universities face a prolonged period of social distancing and substantial delivery of courses online.
• Providing mental health support for vulnerable students.

Speaking on the launch of the fund, Professor Brian MacCraith, President of DCU, outlined the University’s commitment to its "proud tradition of supporting students from disadvantaged backgrounds"

"We established Ireland’s first University Access programme in 1990," he said.

"And we have continued to deliver the largest programme nationally for 30 years now, enabling almost 4,000 Access students to pursue their dream of third level education at DCU.

"We know that this crisis is creating significant difficulties for our Access students, and for many other students too, but we are determined that no student should feel unable to pursue or complete their higher education at DCU due to financial hardship caused by Covid-19.”

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