College chiefs surprised at lack of fees decision

UNIVERSITY presidents have expressed surprise at the Government decision not to introduce student fees or a graduate loans system they had endorsed as a way of tackling a funding deficit in the third-level education sector.

The move decided in the Revised Programme for Government at the weekend means Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe’s favoured system of a “study now, pay later” model will not be introduced in the lifetime of the current Fianna Fáil-Green Party coalition, although he believes it will have to be considered again in the future.

A similar system had been proposed by the university presidents through their umbrella body, the Irish Universities Association (IUA), earlier this year.