Perennial debate reappears — this time more seriously

THE debate about third-level fees is one which ignites almost annually at this time of year — but the Government is giving the idea more serious thought than usual this time around.

Since the 2004 report on Irish higher education from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recommended the reintroduction of tuition charges for undergraduates, government figures have firmly ruled out any return to the scenario abolished in the mid-1990s by the Fianna Fáil-Labour coalition.

However, previous Education Minister Mary Hanafin always qualified her remarks by saying if she had been in the portfolio at the time, ending fees was not a move she would have made.

Politically, however, the idea has been too hot a potato for successive ministers after Labour’s Niamh Breathnach.

With the exception, that is, of Ms Hanafin’s predecessor Noel Dempsey, who made a bold attempt to put forward the argument in favour of fees for those who could afford them. The opposition of the Progressive Democrats and a strong Fianna Fáil backbench lobby put paid to that notion, instead giving Dempsey significant improvements in the level of funding for grants and other student supports.

The model which Mr Dempsey was basing his arguments on was that used in Australia, where students have their fees and maintenance costs covered by the state in the form of a loan, which they only begin paying back as they pass certain earnings thresholds after graduation.

The former minister is even known to have had discussions with his counterparts in Australia about how the scheme is marketed and made acceptable to the public. At the time, he countered suggestions of a potential brain drain (graduates emigrating to avoid loan repayments) with clearly researched figures saying that just 15% of loans go unpaid due to people leaving the country or not reaching the necessary income limits.

There is merit in consideration of such as system, which would mean that family backgrounds and incomes should realistically play no part in thinking about going to college. Rather, only those who could afford it would pay back the fees and only when they begin earning enough money themselves.

This would also mean the families of almost half of school-leavers who do not go into third-level education no longer fund the free fees of those whose children make it to college.

It is an open secret that this is the type of system being marketed by higher education chiefs pushing the Government for a return to tuition fees as they try to stem the effective fall in public funding for the universities and institutes of technology in recent years. With all the major higher education increases being ploughed into research staff and facilities, there is no question but that the experiences and outcomes for those taking primary degree courses have deteriorated despite Government claims to be pushing for inward investment by marketing the country’s highly skilled graduate base.

However, very little of the recent debate on how third-level education is funded has centred on accessibility and what impact a change would have.

For all the strong virtues of abolishing tuition fees in the mid-1990s, the short-term positive effects seem to have stagnated. There was a sharp rise in a few quick years in the level of participation in third-level to about 55% of school-leavers going on to take up a higher education course, but the figure has failed to rise since.

But reaching the Government target of more than 70% will require an additional e500 million annual investment in the sector, according to the Higher Education Authority which filters State funding to the colleges.

The indications are that this kind of funding boost is as likely as a Fianna Fáil-Sinn Féin coalition entering government.

But whether Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe chooses to break a promise in his party’s 2007 election manifesto that fees would not be re-introduced (a promise also made by coalition partners the PDs and the Green Party) remains to be seen.

It is regrettable, however, that the matter appears only to be under consideration to help the Government through an economic crisis rather than to help widen access to higher education.