Proposals for the return of college fees for students once they have completed three years in college have been examined by the Department of Education.
But the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, repeated last night that the return of fees was "off the political agenda" for the lifetime of the current government. He said the €42 million secured last year to help widen access for poorer students had closed the fees issue for the foreseeable future.
Under the proposals, fees would continue to be free for the first three years in colleges. But students in fourth and all subsequent years in college would bear the full economic cost of their course. This would be up to €26,000 per year for veterinary and over €7,000 for an arts course.
There is a widespread belief in education circles that some new fees regime will be imposed in the medium term. The OECD report on third-level education in the Republic, which was commissioned by Mr Dempsey, is widely expected to support the return of tuition fees.
College fees were abolished in 1995. But their removal has created budgetary pressures for the third-level sector. Over 80 per cent of its income comes directly from the State, a very high proportion by international standards.
Under a proposal floated by the chairman of the Higher Education Authority, Dr Don Thornhill, students would pay fees once they entered the fourth year of their studies.
An Australian-style loan system would also be put in place to help ease the pain. The monies due would be recouped through the tax system. The full economic costs per year of other courses works out as follows:
Business €6,344;
Medicine €9,149;
Science €9,602;
Engineering €10,373;
Dentistry €21,294.
The proposals for fees in fourth year dovetails with Mr Dempsey's plans to reform medicine and other undergraduate courses. The Minister is anxious to widen the range of courses available to students. Ideally, he would prefer students to take a general three-year degree course before opting to specialise in a particular discipline. Under his proposals, medicine, for example, would only be available as a postgraduate option to students.
A regime based on fees in fourth year is also attractive politically as it is less highly charged than Mr Dempsey's original plan to bring back fees for most undergraduates. This was abandoned last year when it failed to win support from Cabinet colleagues.
Fees in fourth year would also bring much-needed revenue to third-level colleges, which are struggling to cope with an effective budget cut of 10 per cent.
A fees regime from fourth year would yield €105 million for the universities and about €58 million for the institutes of technology.
