Quinn under pressure over third-level funding

EDUCATION Minister Ruairi Quinn is under pressure to decide soon on student fees or some other source of funding to meet a looming €500 million gap in third-level budgets after the country’s drop in the latest world university rankings.

The Government is likely to consider in the next few weeks whether to impose further fees on students, in addition to the €2,000 charge now levied on most of those not eligible for grants.

Mr Quinn will get a preliminary report on likely funding requirements from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) next week and bring a recommendation to Cabinet soon after. But he accepts estimates that an extra €500m a year will be needed to fund last January’s higher education strategy in the so-called Hunt report.