Cheaper to study at IT Sligo
STUDENTS and their families can slash their education bills by thousands of Euro a year by studying in Sligo. A survey shows accommodation, food, transport and entertainment are vastly cheaper in the North West.
When parents sit down at their kitchen tables with their calculators these are factors they should consider.
The cost of attending a course in different Irish towns and cities varies wildly, according to IT Sligo. And the biggest variant? Accommodation costs.
While student accommodation in Sligo will cost, on average € 320 per month, costs in cities such as Dublin and Galway, where there’s a severe shortage of supply in rental properties, are considerably higher.
Figures provided by University College Dublin ( UCD) for example quote on- campus rents which start at € 543 per month and run up to € 1,008. They estimate that off- campus accommodation in Dublin will set the student back up to € 600 per month. Dublin City University estimate the average cost of shared accommodation in Dublin for the academic year comes to € 3,046 while Trinity College Dublin estimate it to be considerably higher at € 5,500 just in one college year ( that’s almost double the average cost in Sligo).
At IT Sligo six purpose- built accommodation areas house students - Ard Nua Village, Yeats Village Student Accommodation, The Grove Student Complex, Milligan Court Student Accommodation, Clarion Village Student Accommodation and Gateway Apartments.
Individual apartments cater for between two to seven people. These purpose- built housing options include a laundrette and Wi- Fi and electricity charges are included in the rental charge.
In addition, the IT Sligo Students Union operate a free bus service to assist students buy their weekly shop at discount supermarkets. The shuttle contributes to keeping the weekly shop costs low.
As in Dublin, students in Galway compete with working professionals, families and tourists for basic rental properties. While Galway- Mayo Institute of Technology ( GMIT) says monthly rents cost, on average, € 400, figures provided by the National University of Ireland Galway ( NUIG) put that figure at € 440 each month – or € 3,960 per year.
Transport fees can also mount.
While the estimated cost of travel in Sligo comes to € 17.50 per month that figure is nearly seven times higher in the Capital.
University College Dublin advise students to purchase a monthly short hop ticket at a cost of € 119. At DIT travel costs are quoted as € 107.50.
Over the course of a nine- month academic year the variance become even more obvious – approximately € 157.50 in Sligo compared with € 1,071 in Dublin. In Galway, yearly costs for transport amounts to between € 360 and € 400 according to the third- level institutions there.
A night out in the North Western hub is comparatively low compared with such costs in cities such as Galway and Dublin. While a pint of beer costs, on average, € 4.20 in Sligo the price is € 5 in Galway City and € 5.25 in Dublin.
Numbeo, the world’s biggest internet database on the cost of living, estimates that consumer prices in Sligo are 15 percent lower than in Dublin and 5.5 percent lower than Galway. its estimated a student in IT Sligo will spend approximately € 1,575 on food – including weekly shop, breakfast, lunch etc).
The exact same annual bill in Dublin would cost € 1,811 or € 1,661 in Galway.