A REPORT OF 100 pages setting out the options for a new system of student contributions was circulated to Cabinet members by Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe yesterday.
While the document sets out five options, Mr O’Keeffe has signalled his support for a new student loan scheme – in which students repay the cost of fees after graduation.
The document sets out the projected revenue which would be generated by the new loan system. But it makes no recommendation.
Yesterday, the Minister told The Irish Timeshe was anxious to hear the views of Cabinet colleagues – including three former education ministers – before framing his recommendation for Cabinet, probably in September.
The Government hopes to introduce the new funding system for the academic year 2010/11.
However, education sources cautioned that it could be September 2011 before the new system is introduced. In practice, this means it will be 2013 before a new revenue stream is available to third-level colleges.
The higher education system, which receives about £1 billion in supports annually, is poorly funded by international standards.
University presidents claim colleges such as UCD survive on about 50 per cent of the funding available to comparable colleges in Britain and Scandinavia.
The Minister said yesterday the higher education system was overly dependent on exchequer funding.
He said his initiative on a new system of student contributions was based on the need to lay a proper financial foundation for the third-level sector.
The Minister dismissed the notion that he backed away from upfront fees because of opposition from Green Party colleagues in Cabinet. He said he had to be mindful of the ability to pay among average middle-class families already coming to terms with a loss of income through tax and other changes.
Critically, he said it was not unreasonable to ask the student to make some financial contribution; indeed this principle was supported by student leaders in Britain.
He also said his proposals would be based on affordability and equity. It was clear, he said, that the abolition of fees had done little to boost participation rates among the disadvantaged.
He stressed that any new system of student contribution would not apply to poorer groups.
The Government is likely to endorse the student loan proposal in September. Any return to upfront fees would have unleashed an angry reaction from parents. While student leaders will oppose the new loan scheme, the Government hopes the overall public reaction to student loans will be relatively low-key.
The Government is also helped by Fine Gael’s broad support for the principle of a student contribution. At last year’s party ardfheis education spokesman Brian Hayes backed a new graduate tax.
Yesterday, USI president Peter Mannion said introducing a deferred loan system or a “Fianna Fáil legacy graduate tax” is “devoid of foresight and will only bankrupt the entire education sector”.
“By examining similar systems in Australia and New Zealand we see that deferred loans for students and graduate taxes inevitably lead to economic disaster.
“In these countries, student loans, taxes and fees have made third-level education virtually inaccessible to rural, working class and mature students.”
