Supporting students all the way
Student Universal Support Ireland (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 Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in the Student Support Act 2011 and annual Student Grant Schemes and Student Support Regulations. Established in 2012 to replace 66 regional awarding authorities, SUSI delivered a centralised, single, awarding authority for student funding. SUSI’s mission is to empower students to transform their lives through tertiary education and since 2012, has processed over 1.16 million applications, awarded over 880,000 grants to students and paid almost €3.5 billion in funding.
In recent years, as well as implementing the most legislative changes in over a decade, SUSI’s commitment to students increased further as its remit expanded beyond the Student Grant Scheme. SUSI now administers the PLC Bursary for Displaced Persons Ukraine Scheme and the International Protection Student Scheme. In addition, SUSI provides assistance to the higher education institutions in delivering the 1916 Bursary and processes applications for funding for the new tertiary education programmes. SUSI is also the paying authority for the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science’s scholarships and bursaries including the All-Ireland Scholarship.
Commenting on SUSI’s evolution over the past 12 years Philip Connolly, SUSI’s Director of Services says: “SUSI is committed to delivering continuous service improvements for students. We are always exploring ways to innovate and enhance our service so that students can quickly and easily access funding. These improvements are achieved through a focus on our people, our systems, our processes, and our provision of accessible information.”
Connolly adds: “The development of our people is key to delivering a quality service to our students.” As a people-focused organisation, SUSI identified the need for a dedicated unit to support staff development, tailor training programmes, and recruit new team members. This resulted in the establishment of an organisation development unit in 2019, which has helped ensure SUSI has a strong team fully enabled with the skills and knowledge required to support its students. The organisation’s work in this area was highlighted last year when SUSI received gold certification in the National Standards Authority of Ireland’s (NSAI) Excellence Through People scheme.
Connolly continues: “Consistent development of our systems has supported both the delivery of an online application system as well a centralised system for the swift assessment of grant applications.”
Recognising students as predominantly digital natives, SUSI created an online student portal. The portal provides students with a convenient way to submit their application as well as enabling them to view correspondence, track the progress of their application and where applicable, view the status of their grant payments.
SUSI also created a centralised online system for the swift and consistent assessment of grant applications. This system drives efficiency in the assessment process improving the time it takes for a student to receive a decision on their application. In academic year 2023/24, the mean time for the initial assessment of an application was just under one week with the time being just over one week for assessment of returned documentation.
Data sharing agreements with government bodies such as the Department of Social Protection, Revenue Commissioners and CAO have also supported the delivery of a streamlined application process by reducing the need for students to send documentation to SUSI.
In 2022, SUSI embarked on a pilot project to explore the benefits of robotic project automation (RPA). As a result, the number of manual tasks within SUSI processes has decreased allowing team members to focus on other tasks which support the student.
Securing the direct payment of the grant to students’ bank accounts via electronic fund transfers has removed the need for cheques and helped ensure eligible students receive their payment as quickly as possible.
“As the work we do is based on legislation, we understand the need to make information about funding readily available to students in a format that is easy to access and understand,” says Connolly.
SUSI redeveloped its website last year with a design that has user experience at its core. This new website has helped to drive awareness of student funding by giving students access to key information including eligibility criteria, income thresholds, payment schedules, and more. The addition of the eligibility indicator means students can quickly check if they might be eligible for funding.
SUSI’s responsive support desk has ensured that students and the public can contact SUSI with any questions they have about student funding and the application process. SUSI’s team of access officers provide assistance and guidance to persons with disabilities throughout the SUSI application process and act as the direct point of contact for the applicant during their time as a SUSI service user. While the dedicated Stakeholder Helpdesk and annual stakeholder training enables SUSI to support students through a number of key stakeholders including public representatives, HEI access officers, and students union representatives.
As well as meeting students and parents in person at events such as college open days and career fairs, SUSI also hosts its own virtual event for students and their families. Here students can find out information about student funding as well as share any questions they have with the SUSI team.
Looking ahead to the future, SUSI’s commitment to students is stronger than ever. Connolly concludes: “Our five-year strategy places the student at the centre of everything we do through building an agile organisation and harnessing cutting-edge digital systems. We will proactively lead the advances necessary to further develop service delivery for students in the form of enhanced user experience, increased self-service, and improved responsiveness. We look forward to broadening our supports to more students in the years to come.”
Student Support Desk
T: 0818 888 777
E: support@susi.ie
W: www.susi.ie
