Thousands of students are still waiting for their college grants to be processed, it has been reported.

According to Fine Gael, 8,000 applications for finance have yet to be approved or declined by some local authorities.

Data released to the party's education spokesman Brian Hayes revealed that just 41 of the country's 66 awarding bodies have dealt with all of their applicants, RTE News reports.

This means that approximately 13 per cent of students are still waiting for news on their appeals for financial assistance.

"However, some bodies have a huge numbers of applications still to process. County Dublin VEC has yet to begin processing more than 2,000 applications," the news provider stated.

The Irish Independent reported earlier this week that there has been a surge in the number of people applying to study at third-level institutions this year.

Around 71,232 have submitted applications for a place so far, compared to 67,634 during the same time in 2009.

Written by Donal Walsh

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