English only service available to Students
June 19, 2012
Students seeking information on financial support for further and higher education can now access a new website www.studentfinance.ie.
The website provides useful information on fees, grants as well as all terms and conditions associated with student grants. This helpful web site gives a detailed account into a range of options that can sometimes be difficult to understand and complex in nature. However, those wishing to avail of the service through Irish will be left disappointed as the website is not fully bilingual. The website offers an Irish language option available at the top of the screen, however, it only displays the page titles through Irish with the rest of the content available only in English. Upon contacting www.studentfinance.ie, the website operators said that the initial aim of the website was to go live. The website is an initiative of The Higher Education Authority (HEA) which is a public company that comes under The Official Languages Act 2003. The HEA also has a very informative website of its own, however it also has very limited Irish language content. The Higher Education Authority is obliged by its language scheme under The Official Languages Act to provide a fully bilingual website. However it does not seem that they are under obligation to provide an Irish version of any other website that is connected to the authority through Irish only the authority’s website itself. www.studentfinance.ie is expected to generate a high amount of interest over the coming period as students finish their exams and as a result of this the Minister of Education has recently asked those interested in applying for grants to do so as early as possible. The Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) was also launched lately by the Higher Education Authority. The Online application system for Student Grants for the 2012-13 caters for both official languages. This is due to the HEA duty under the Official Languages Act to provide interactive services through Irish and English. The service is quite difficult to find however unless you access it through www.studentfinance.ie. Once the user is using SUSI they are recommended to find further information in relation to the grants from www.studentfinance.ie. Unfournately, due to the fact the www.studentfinance.ie is primarily available in English this puts the Irish Language user at a severe disadvantage.
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com
