Just a third of the registration fee paid by students of Trinity College Dublin is used on student services, an Oireachtas committee heard today.
A copy of accounts sent to the Oireachtas Education committee by TCD student’s union reveal that much of the registration fee was used in lieu of cuts in the Government grant for the college, committee chairman and Green education spokesman Paul Gogarty said.
The registration charge, which was increased from €900 to €1,500 in most colleges this year, is supposed to be ring-fenced for student services, exams and registration.
Fine Gael TD and education spokesman Brian Hayes said it was “fees through the back door”. The accounts showed that a “substantial amount of the charge to students went to the core grant and maintenance at TCD,” he said.
The estimated accounts of the student service charge for 2008/ 2009 revealed that just €593.75 of a €900 charge per student was spent directly on student services. The rest of the fee was used to make up the shortfall in the reduction of the state grant by the Higher Education Authority (HEA).
This was “direct evidence that students are being fleeced and the charge is not related to student services,” Mr Hayes said.
Mr Gogarty said there was a lack of clarity as to how registration fees were assessed in colleges, however he said it was not fees by the back door.
The registration fees either needed to be reduced or colleges needed enhanced student services, he said.
The committee would forward the letter to the Minister for Education asking for an urgent response before the budget, he said
Brian Hayes said he had written to the Comptroller and Auditor General asking for an immediate investigation of seven universities and Institutes of Technology of how student registration fees were spent.