Students who completed their Leaving Certificate exams last week and are looking to continue their education have been encouraged to apply for any grants that may be available.

This year, the process of requesting funding has been simplified, as the previous four schemes have been combined into a single system.

The Department of Education and Skills has urged students to complete the application process as soon as possible to prevent any decisions being delayed.

It also noted that as many as 60 per cent of claims have to be returned due to being incomplete or inaccurate, which can also increase the amount of time it takes for a request to be processed, so students were reminded to take care when filling in the forms.

More than half of those expected to make an application should be able to do so online via studentfinance.ie, as a total of 35 awarding bodies now use these facilities, the department noted.

Last week, a total of 55,550 students at institutions across the country successfully completed their Leaving Certificate exams, with the results due to be announced on August 17th.

Written by Donal Walsh
 

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