The Union of Students in Ireland has said the lack of summer jobs and reduced Covid-19 payments will have a massive impact on students entering or returning to third level education this year, with many inquiring about deferring their courses.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Sarah McInerney, USI President Lorna Fitzpatrick said that many students are paying fees and rent for private accommodation where they have not been staying and the loss of summer earnings will hit them badly.
Ms Fitzpatrick said there is a massive impact on families where income of parents has also been hit and they cannot afford to support their children's return to education.
The USI has asked the Government to take into consideration the hours students would have worked over the summer and the loss of potential earnings when looking to reduce the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.
She said taking account of past summer earnings would be a way to ensure fairness.
Speaking on the same programme, Liam Cosgrave, a third-year student at Maynooth University, said the reduced PUP will leave him struggling to pay for college next year as he can no longer get a summer job.
He said he usually works in the summer teaching international students here to learn English and earned €2,000 a month in the summer to help with accommodation, fees and tuition.
He said the costs of going to higher education has been hard for his family with no grant and his family has borrowed to support him.
He had a part-time job and will now move from the full PUP to a reduced payment of €203 per month.
Mr Cosgrave said he is still not sure if he can spend the payments as he has been told they are subject to tax.
He said that students here are paying the highest fees in Europe "for a glorified online course".
He said housing in Maynooth is scarce and people are worried about whether they can return to campus accommodation or not.
The USI says there is no clarity on campus accommodation at the moment.
A third-year student at TUD Tallaght, Isabel Connolly, said learning from a variety of new materials and sources has been challenging.
She said "nothing beats human contacts" and lectures to discuss problems and ask questions.
Ms Connolly had planned an internship in a laboratory as she is studying pharmaceutical science and said losing that work experience will affect her job prospects .
She said trying to contact lecturers and get answers in an online forum has been more difficult.
