Ireland well placed to introduce student loan system, says ESRI

A student loan system covering living costs as well as college fees would be the fairest way to help properly fund third-level education, the Economic and Social Research Institute suggests.

But it also radically revises the level of extra funding needed for the sector, saying that projected student number increases in last year’s Government higher education strategy are too high. Although it predicts 25% growth over 20 years, this is substantially less than suggested in the 2011 Hunt Report.

The ESRI predicts the additional annual cost of running the colleges will be about €100m by 2020 — one-fifth of the €500m previously estimated.