Thousands of third-level students from across Ireland are due to receive their college grants this morning. Around 40,000 requests for grant aid were made to SUSI this year - and by the end of September 21,000 were left to be processed.

SUSI says payments will be made directly into the accounts of those students who have been awarded a grant.

Higher education grant students who are not included in the payment run this week will receive their grant by the end of this month.

Payments will be made directly to the accounts of students who have been awarded by SUSI, registered for college and been confirmed by their college to SUSI as having registered.

The student grant body was widely criticised last year, when thousands of students were left waiting months for a decision on their grant application.

Meanwhile the first payment run for renewal grant students in higher education started last Friday, and the first payments of post leaving certificate grants will begin next Friday.

The President of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) Joe O'Connor is welcoming the news.

Students can get more information from the SUSI website, or from the SUSI helpdesk on Twitter.