‘If you’re my age and finally arriving at university, you have a great appreciation for being there’

“I wish I had known earlier that it was so possible and feasible,” says Caroline Cahill, a 46-year-old mature student from Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow.
Her decision to attend university at the age of 43 during a challenging period has had a profound effect on her life, notably a “sense of control”.
After her marriage broke down, the mother of two realised she had an opportunity to fulfil an almost-lifelong ambition and attend university more than two decades after leaving secondary school.
“I had always wanted to go to college but life went differently,” she says, explaining that the cost of attending university was a barrier. Instead, she worked in a cafe after finishing school and primarily focused on being a mother until now.
Cahill, whose children are now aged 16 and 23, is in her third year of her languages, linguistics and cultures degree at University College Dublin (UCD).
“It was a personal interest and also the need and desire to have some sort of work or career at the other side of it,” she says. “You’re using your time in a really productive way to build something for yourself and your kids.”
With significant responsibilities outside of the classroom, there have been challenges along the way, she says, adding that the level of support available for mature students is arguably the difference between dropping out or completing their degree.
She was surprised by the level of support available to mature students, which she describes as “personal and adaptive”.
Reacting to new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) which shows mature students in receipt of Susi grants are more likely to complete their degree than those not in receipt of financial support, she believes this is down to “appreciation”.
[ Young students with Susi grants less likely to complete degree, study findsOpens in new window ]
“You’ve been through life, you know what it’s like to try and earn money and you need to rent, life is very real already so that money makes a big difference.
“If you’re my age and finally arriving at university, you have a great appreciation for being there, and you must really want to be there if you’re going to fit your life around that, you’re not going to waste the opportunity,” she says.
She would not have been able to undertake a degree without the Susi grants towards fees and living costs while a student, says Cahill, adding: “It just takes off the worry at the end of every month.
“I wish I had known earlier that it was so possible and feasible, that that financial support along with the other support was there. I didn’t know,” she says.
There are several other mature students in her course, says Cahill, and they are “certainly the more enthusiastic students in class”.