Dempsey urged not to bring back college fees

REINTRODUCING college fees could harm the prospects of improved access to third level education, the head of Irish universities has warned.

Dr Séamus Smyth chair of the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities, (CHIU) said there was not enough evidence that the free fees scheme has prevented people from disadvantaged backgrounds going to college.

He said the possibility of bringing back fees, being considered in a government review of third level funding, could prove regressive.

“There is a danger of using fees as an obstacle to greater access, but we should be working to remove those obstacles rather than creating them,” Dr Smyth said.

He said that the most recent statistics on the socio-economic background of third level students were for 1998, only two years after the full abolition of fees.

“There is five years without any data and any change like this takes a decade to take effect,” he said. The university heads are anxious that the Government should redress cuts in third level budgets, including a 1% in funding announced in last November’s Book of Estimates.

“This came at a time when universities had depended on increases of around 7.5% and we are still waiting on our official grants from government which were expected last month,” said Dr Smyth.

“We are already seeing tutorials being cut, jobs being frozen and library budgets being slashed,” he said.

The head of CHIU was speaking at UCC, where the Irish Universities Quality Board was launched last night. The board has been set up to oversee quality assurance procedures in the seven universities, aimed at improving student experience but also maximising resources and identifying where extra resources and funding are required.

The review of student support services and third level funding for Education Minister Noel Dempsey is due later this month.