Before the recent general election, one of the last acts of the former Minister for Education, Niamh Bhreathnach, was to publish details of the increases in the level of maintenance grants for third-level students. Traditionally, this has been a source of little joy for those depending on grant assistance to see them through a year in college.

Last year, for example, the five per cent increase in the grant was the first increase above the level of inflation in almost a decade. This year, the outgoing Government increased the maximum maintenance grant from £1,600 to £1,624, an increase of 1.5 per cent. Calculated over a 36week academic year this amounts to about 67p per week, just enough to buy a litre of milk to colour your morning coffee, assuming you can afford to pay for the jar of coffee in the first place.

More depressing yet is the fact that, according to figures published by the Union of Students in Ireland, this £24 increase represents only 0.5 per cent of the real cost of attending college. Despite the abolition of fees, going to college is still an expensive business.

Free third level education is a myth, even taking into account the abolition of fees, since the actual fees levied by colleges were only a fraction of the true cost of a year in college. The amount a student spends on rent, books, socialising, clothing, travel, heat, light, telephone bills and food will determine just how easy he or she finds it to survive at third level.

Estimates based on figures produced by the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) show that it costs £4,918 to finance a third-level student for eight months away from home. The estimate from Dublin City University (DCU) is £3,872.

For those with a student living at home, DCU estimates it will cost £2,152 to keep them, USI £3,166. In other words, for those paying the 48 per cent rate of tax, keeping a student at college will cost in the region of £4,000 of pre-tax income and, for a student living away from home, conceivably between £6,000 and £7,000.

It should be noted that USI and DCU differ on the length of the academic year, with USI costing its estimates over nine months (RTC students in particular tend to start their academic year earlier than their university peers, while students in rented accommodation will still have to pay rent during holiday periods). In that case, USI estimates for the academic year increase to £5,517 for students living away and £3,546 for those living at home.

Reduced to a week-by-week basis, this means that the maximum non-adjacent grant amounts to £45.13 per week while USI's figures indicate that the actual weekly cost of attending college for a student receiving this grant is £137. A student living at home and receiving a grant will have £18 per week in grant aid, but the actual cost to the student and his/her parents will actually be in the region of £86.

The estimates from both USI and DCU reveal the huge gap between the level of grant aid available to students and the real costs they face at third level. Between 1982 and 1996, the true value of the maintenance grant actually decreased by 50 per cent. Following this year's meagre increase, it appeared that the outgoing Government had largely given up any hope of redressing that imbalance and that students were unlikely to find a crock of gold at the end of the Rainbow Coalition.

There are indications that the situation may improve under the new Minister for Education, Micheal Martin. Fianna Fail's education policy paper promised a review of the grants system, the extension of grants to Post-Leaving Certificate students and the removal of certain elements of the Higher Education Grants Scheme which discriminated against mature students.

Under the current scheme, mature students are penalised by a grants system which appears to make few allowances for their financial independence when determing their grant. Few mature students qualify for the full non-adjacent maintenance grant because they are either assessed on their parents' income if they are living at home or, if they live within 15 miles of their college, they are awarded the adjacent grant only. In recent years, a considerable number of students seeking help from DCU's student assistance fund have been mature students.

PLC students, meanwhile, have consistently been refused grant aid because of a reluctance to extend third-level recognition to their courses. With PLC colleges offering a range of courses which are either unavailable in third-level colleges or offering more vocationally-based study options, students who took the PLC option have been penalised for trying to make themselves more employable.

Survival in college is possible on less than either the USI or DCU estimates, although neither estimate is in any way excessive. A student poverty survey conducted by USI in 1995 revealed that many students cut costs by eating poorly or foregoing necessary visits to doctors and dentists.

Costs are also dependent on the quality of accommodation: on-campus accommodation can be quite expensive, bedsits and house-sharing (especially in RTC towns) less so.

Costs also vary from faculty to faculty. The DCU and USI estimates for books and other academic materials are quite conservative and may represent a realistic figure only for certain business or arts faculties, and even they will be dependent on generally under-stocked libraries in order to keep within these estimates.

By contrast, students of law and medicine traditionally face huge bills for books and, in the case of medicine, medical equipment. For them, the DCU/USI estimates are hopelessly optimistic.

Students frequently supplement their incomes with part-time work, although in many cases the definition of part-time is extremely loose: the USI survey revealed students who were, in effect, working full-time hours while trying to keep up with their studies. In the case of science students or those engaged in courses where nine-to-five lecture days are not uncommon, part-time work simply may not be an option.

Into every life a little rain must fall. The USI/DCU figures paint a grim picture on first acquaintance. However, while student hardship is a reality, most students manage to make the best of the situation.

The financial burden is eased by help from various quarters - careful budgeting, summer and part-time work, the generosity of parents, relatives and friends who are prepared to buy a hard-up mate a drink - and student societies, which can frequently be relied upon to provide a free cup of coffee and a biscuit.

The reward for all this effort is likely to be the best three to four years of your life, during which you may find (a) your true role in life, (b) the true love of your life - or, if you are especially lucky, neither.