The Irish Research Council ( see here for previous post on gender issues ) is the main funder for non STEM areas in Ireland
Heres a story from an award recipient
I received IRC postgraduate funding some years ago, starting in October of that year. The way that works is that the Irish Research Council pays the university two lump sums of e8,000 on the 1st of October and 1st April, which the university pays out to the student on a monthly basis. So far, so normal. I, however, got caught between two stones:
- A condition of IRC funding is that you're not allowed to work any other employment (so from 1st October I was not allowed to work).
- My university (TCD) does its payroll on the 20th of the month (in this case, October).
So for three weeks I was utterly without funds, expected to live in town and work on my research. The university, the SU, and my department all did nothing (though some tried). All I got was "payroll takes time" and "this is the way things are". How did they expect me to live? (I ended up borrowing money from friends and family, but I was lucky I had them.) A professor seriously suggested applying to the Student Hardship Fund, which seemed obscene given that I had funding. The fact that the money was sitting in the university's account for those three weeks just added insult to injury.
I've asked around, and this catch-22 is pretty common for IRC funded people, apparently.
Brian : It would seem that having decided a student is worthy of the award that it might be sensible for the IRC and the university to have in place transitional arrangements. Bureaucratically sticking to rigid payment schedules that do not mesh with the university payroll isn't terribly smart. In this case, knowing that TCD pay on the 20th it would seem that the sensible thing would be to advance the payment from 1/10 to 20/9... IRC operates funny timelines.
Heres a story from an award recipient
I received IRC postgraduate funding some years ago, starting in October of that year. The way that works is that the Irish Research Council pays the university two lump sums of e8,000 on the 1st of October and 1st April, which the university pays out to the student on a monthly basis. So far, so normal. I, however, got caught between two stones:
- A condition of IRC funding is that you're not allowed to work any other employment (so from 1st October I was not allowed to work).
- My university (TCD) does its payroll on the 20th of the month (in this case, October).
So for three weeks I was utterly without funds, expected to live in town and work on my research. The university, the SU, and my department all did nothing (though some tried). All I got was "payroll takes time" and "this is the way things are". How did they expect me to live? (I ended up borrowing money from friends and family, but I was lucky I had them.) A professor seriously suggested applying to the Student Hardship Fund, which seemed obscene given that I had funding. The fact that the money was sitting in the university's account for those three weeks just added insult to injury.
I've asked around, and this catch-22 is pretty common for IRC funded people, apparently.
Brian : It would seem that having decided a student is worthy of the award that it might be sensible for the IRC and the university to have in place transitional arrangements. Bureaucratically sticking to rigid payment schedules that do not mesh with the university payroll isn't terribly smart. In this case, knowing that TCD pay on the 20th it would seem that the sensible thing would be to advance the payment from 1/10 to 20/9... IRC operates funny timelines.
