New part-time and full-time students at Waterford Institute of Technology, who are from a socio-economically disadvantaged background, are being encouraged to apply for a ‘1916’ scholarship.

The 1916 bursary was established by the Department of Education and Skills to encourage participation and success by students who are most economically disadvantaged and who are from communities significantly underrepresented in higher education socio-economically disadvantaged background and can provide evidence of such.

Tomorrow (Friday, August 30th) is the closing date for the expression of interest, which eligible new entrants to WIT can apply for – there are 35 bursaries available among a cluster of five colleges WIT is included in.

Each student who is awarded the scholarship will receive a bursary to the amount of €5,000 for each year of their undergraduate programme of study up to a maximum of €20,000 for full-time students and a maximum of €30,000 for part-time students.

“The 1916 Bursary is worth €5000 on an annual basis for each recipient for the duration of their full time or part-time course here in WIT.

“There are two stages to the application process and the first stage is a straight forward expression of interest application form which is open until 5 pm on the 30th of August,” explains Robin Croke, Access Project Co-ordinator, WIT.

He says that the full eligibility criteria is available on the WIT website.

One of the key criteria is applicants must be new to higher education and pursuing an undergraduate course and progressing to higher education for the first time in the 2019-2020 academic year.

All of the higher education institutions are awarding the Bursaries through regional clusters.

WIT is part of the 1916 Bursary Fund: South Cluster SOAR Project. The South Cluster is comprised of five higher education institutions: Cork Institute of Technology, Institute of Technology Carlow, Institute of Technology Tralee, University College Cork and Waterford Institute of Technology.

The bursary fund will be administered through the Cluster South’s SOAR Project. The SOAR Project is an inter-institutional Access initiative funded under the Programme for Access to Higher Education (PATH) Fund.

The South Cluster has a total of 35 bursaries available to award to students applying to these higher education institutions.