Students in the west have expressed anger at the Government's decision to curtail a programme which offered unemployed people, independent parents and people on disability allowances the chance to return to third-level education.
The vice-president and registrar of NUI, Galway, Prof Jim Brown, has also described as "contradictory" the decision by the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, to drop the Back To Education Allowance (BTEA) for post-graduates.
"When the Government is seeking greater access for people to third-level education, as it has done in a very public way, discontinuing a successful initiative like the BTEA would seem to run counter to that policy," Prof Brown told The Irish Times.
"This scheme has allowed unemployed people, who are often single parents, the chance to return to finish their studies. Apart from policy, there is also an issue of fairness, in that people have made plans based on this scheme's existence."
The BTEA was originally designed as an educational opportunity scheme for the unemployed, lone parents, and those receiving farm assist payments, blind person's pensions and disability allowances. The standard payment applies to all participants, and the allowance is not means tested so students who have to work to supplement their income are free to do so.
The allowance of €124.80 a week runs for the full duration of the education course, including all holiday periods, and includes an annual book allowance of €254.
Last year, 4,968 people received the BTEA, 650 of whom were post-graduates, according to the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs. However, a ministerial order was enacted in January to withdraw it for post-graduates, and to cease under-graduates' holiday payments.
Ms Cathy McGovern, one of some 185 Mayo students who qualified for the allowance in 2001-2002, said the BTEA was an "inspired scheme" which had allowed her and many others to leave the dole, return to college and gain the qualifications required for employment.
Currently in her second year at college, Ms McGovern said she found the cuts and the manner in which they were brought about "very distressing".
"The Government's rhetoric on social inclusion seems to be only that - rhetoric," she said.
Fine Gael Senator, Mr Ulick Burke, told the Minister that the greatest proportion of BTEA participants lived in the economically
disadvantaged areas of the west and north-west.
A spokeswoman for Ms Coughlan said the decision only affected some 650 postgraduate students who were receiving the BTEA at a cost of €4 million a year. The Minister was "looking again" at the situation of postgraduates who wanted to study for the Higher Diploma in secondary teaching.
