Cost of living: Queen's University Belfast to spend £8m on support
- Published
The cost-of-living payments will be made to staff and students in January 2023
Queen's University Belfast is to spend about £8m making extra cost-of-living payments to students and most staff.
Most of the university's 25,000 students will receive £150, although about 3,600 students from lower-income families will get a higher payment of £400.
About 3,000 staff - all staff apart from senior managers - will receive between £500 and £750.
But the payments will not be made until January 2023.
Inflation is increasing at nearly its fastest rate in 40 years, driven largely by the rising cost of food and fuel.
In the Republic of Ireland, thousands of students staged walkouts on Thursday, in protest at the cost-of-living and accommodation crises.
Queen's University recently declared a "critical incident" due to rises in the cost of living and said it would bring forward measures to help staff and students.
Some of those measures have now been agreed by senate, the university's governing body.
'Greatest need after Christmas'
The university's vice-chancellor Prof Ian Greer told BBC News NI he was "very concerned" about the cost-of-living pressures on students and staff.
"There's no doubt that fuel in particular has been a problem across the board, not just for our student population but our staff also," he said.
"In addition the cost of food is also increasing and that causes general hardship for students who are on a very modest income in any event."
Prof Ian Greer said the university was also considering further measures
Prof Greer was asked by BBC News NI why it would take until January for students to get the payments.
"Students have largely just received their student loan support funding, and we felt the time of greatest need would be just after the Christmas period," he replied.
Students will also not have to pay any fees to graduate - normally £47 - in 2022/23.
All library fines will also be waived and any student discipline fines halved.
The 3,600 students who will receive the higher £400 payment are those whose family household income is below £25,000 a year.
Staff will also receive their cost-of-living payment in January.
"The pressures for the cost of living crisis that I've outlined for students - things like fuel, cost of housing, cost of food - are real pressures for our staff," Prof Greer said.
The university will spend about £5.5m on the cost-of-living payments for students and around £2.5m on the payments for staff.
Prof Greer said the university was also considering further measures, including providing breakfasts for staff and students, and decisions would be made on those in the coming weeks.
He also told BBC News NI the university was facing an increase of "several million pounds" in its energy bills.
President of Queen's Students Union, Emma Murphy, said November and December will be a particularly tough time for students
'Really tough times'
Emma Murphy, president of Queen's Students Union, welcomed the payments.
"It has come from strong lobbying on our behalf of students, making sure that their voices are being heard and listened to and that the university is recognising the really tough times they are going to go through over the winter months," she said.
She said there were three main areas that would be a concern for students - the cost of food, fuel and rent.
She added that November and December would be a particularly tough time for students because loan payments typically come through in January.
Ms Murphy said there was "some lobbying to be done in terms of different programmes" to help support students including offering free breakfasts and ensuring free period products are available.
In the Republic of Ireland, students at third level colleges walked out of lectures and tutorials on Thursday morning in protest at the accommodation and cost-of-living crises.
The action, which took place at 11 minutes past 11, saw hundreds of students gather in college quads and other outdoor spaces to protest.
It was organised by the Union of Students in Ireland, which claims that landlords are exploiting the student accommodation crisis by charging sky-high rents.
Students are calling for an immediate ban on evictions and the introduction of housing as a constitutional right.
Hundreds of students staged a walkout at Trinity University, Dublin, on Thursday morning
In the Republic, thousands of students participated in a walkout on Thursday.
Students left universities at 11:11 local time and gathered in protest in college squares and open spaces. Demonstrations took place in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford, Carlow and other towns.
The walkout was organised by the Union of Students in Ireland who say landlords are exploiting students with extortionate rents.
The union said there is an expected shortfall of 20,000 student beds by 2024.
It criticised the Irish government for failing to cap rent and said the recently announced budget shows no commitment to solving the shortage.
Other support
Separately, a number of schools in Northern Ireland had previously decided to offer more pupils free meals in response to rises in the cost of living.
Queen's University had previously spent about £4.5m in July 2022 on payments of between £1,000 and £150 to staff for their work during the Covid pandemic.
Ulster University also paid most of its staff an extra cost-of-living payment of up to £1,000 in June 2022.
Related topics
- Published7 October 2022
- Published7 June 2022
