Student Universal Support Ireland Project

City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee

Currently there are 66 student grant awarding authorities (County Councils and Vocational Education Committees) in the Republic of Ireland engaged in processing student grant applications, which include new student grant applications and renewals. The recently passed Student Support Act 2011 contained measures to reform the student grant process. Following this, it was recommended to the Minister of Education and Skills that the City of Dublin Vocational Committee be appointed as the single awarding authority. City of Dublin VEC is currently in discussions with the Department of Education and Skills regarding the implementation plan. The project will involve a phased approach, commencing with all new applications for student grants in the 2012/13 academic year. It is estimated that there will be approximately 63 000 new student grant applications in the 2012/13 academic year. Meanwhile the remaining 65 authorities will continue to process their own renewal grant applications with existing clients.
CDVEC’s aim is to provide an efficient, timely and customer centred service for the processing and payment of student grants and fees on a national basis. It will utilise the www.grantsonline.ie website and its own grants processing and payment systems to deliver this service. It is envisaged that the opening date for student grant applications for the 2012/13 academic year will be in April 2012, by which time it is anticipated that the new system will be fully operational.
In order to deliver this service, the CDVEC is creating a new dedicated unit - Student Universal Support Ireland (SuSi). This unit will require a number of services, divided into two lots as follows:
— lot 1: Document Management Services,
— lot 2: Contact Centre.
NOTE: To register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the eTenders Web Site at http://www.etenders.gov.ie/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=262292.

Deadline
The time limit for receipt of tenders was 2011-07-20. The procurement was published on 2011-06-28.

Who?

• • City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee

What?

• • Administrative services of agencies › Administrative educational services
• • Telephone-answering services › Call centre