Local colleges get €480,000 to support students’ mental health and wellbeing
Waterford Institute of Technology and IT Carlow have been allocated a total of €481,000 by Government to support students’ mental health and wellbeing.
The funding is part of a national package of €5 million package announced by the Minister for Further & Higher Education, Research, Innovation & Science Simon Harris today.
WIT will receive €239,000 from the fund, while IT Carlow will get €242,000.
Kilkenny TD and Ferrybank resident John Paul Phelan, who studied at WIT, welcomed the funding, part of which will be used to recruit additional student counsellors and assistant psychologists.
Deputy Phelan said: “”This important funding for Carlow and Waterford will really help support students as they return to college in this Covid world.
“Mental health is probably the number one health issue for young people in Ireland today. The concerns and worries of young people around their mental health have been compounded by the isolation and uncertainty brought forward by the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Minister Harris added: “This additional support is a welcome boost to a higher education sector that enrols in the region of 55,000 new students each year. These young and not-so-young students engage in higher education at a sometimes-challenging time of change and progression in their lives.
“This is a sizeable proportion of our population, and while our health and community services work to support everyone, there can be environmentally specific or transitional issues that arise for both current and new students in higher education.”
