THE COMMITMENT to retain “free fees” in the third level education sector is one of the most eye-catching elements of the renewed programme for government; it is also the aspect which the Green Party has been most anxious to trumpet. The decision plays well with the party’s mostly middle-class core constituency which was concerned about the prospect of expensive tuition fees next September. But is it a good deal for the wider higher education sector and is the issue truly resolved?
The Cabinet will not now consider a 110-page options paper on tuition charges prepared by Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe. Although the document does not make a recommendation, Mr O’Keeffe has made no secret of his support for a system of student loans, based on the much imitated Australian model. We are now led to believe that a return to straightforward “upfront” fees of the kind mentioned by Green Party Ministers over the weekend was never seriously on the agenda.
According to Mr O’Keeffe, his approach would have placed higher education on a sound funding base from about 2015. He had intended too to divert funds to help widen access to third level. Interestingly Fine Gael education spokesman Brian Hayes has committed his party to a variation on this theme, favouring a graduate tax. Both parties accept the case for increased higher-level funding. There are good reasons for this: the quality of higher education is critical in the battle to secure inward investment and to reposition the Irish economy.
Higher education cannot continue with the current funding model if it is to achieve the lofty goals set by Government. A cursory glance at the many outdated facilities and poor infrastructure within third-level colleges reveals the extent of the funding crisis facing them. Support per student in the Republic is well below the OECD average and two of the leading colleges – University College Cork and University College Dublin – have accumulated debts of more than €20 million.
Under the new programme, the Government has said it “will not proceed with any new scheme of student contribution for third-level education”. But Mr O’Keeffe was refusing yesterday to rule out an increase in registration fees. The Greens may claim a negotiating victory but what they and Fianna Fáil have done is to heap confusion on to uncertainty. They have left a policy vacuum which does a double disservice: to a sector which should be preparing for future challenges and to parents who, in the most difficult economic circumstances, are attempting to plan financially for their children’s education. If the third-level sector is to have a sustainable funding base, it seems certain that this or future administrations will return to the issue of student contributions.
In the meantime, the renewed programme for government has seriously compromised the Coalition’s options to find €4 billion in the December budget. With a property tax and third level fees ruled out, the implicit message from the Government is that it will concentrate on pay cuts and redundancies in the public service and cuts in social welfare to meet its budget targets.