Delay to decision on education fees, funding

A Government decision on student fees and how to fund higher education is to take at least another year as Education Minister Ruairi Quinn awaits more reports and reviews.

He wants to see proposals from colleges about mergers and reduced duplication of courses before deciding how much of a funding gap needs to be filled directly by students. However, if colleges do not come up with significant reforms, he will direct them on how the system is to be restructured and which ones should offer certain degrees.

Despite a range of reportsrecommending various funding models, most saying a student loan system is best suited, Mr Quinn said he also wanted to wait for further analysis of the funding situation. He has already said the €2,250 annual fee for undergraduates will rise €250 a year to €3,000 over the Government’s lifetime.

The minister will outline his position tomorrow on the future of the higher education sector, which faces a financial crisis on foot of a 10% fall in staffing and a 12% increase in student numbers over the past four years.

Last year’s Government strategy on higher education, the Hunt Report, estimated the annual rise in the cost of running the sector the funding gap would reach €500m a year by 2020. However, the ESRI suggests the rise will be more like €100m annually as it predicts a lower increase in student enrolments, in line with recent Department of Education projections.

The HEA said last week the colleges’ initial responses were too conservative, showing more self-interest than real appetite for serious collaboration.

“It is not that I want to take money out of the system, I want that money to be better used,” said Mr Quinn. “When we have those figures, it will take at least a year to begin to count them, we will know what is the real gap in sustainable funding. We will then address the question of how best to close that gap.”

His comments come days after an ESRI report for the Higher Education Authority review of the sector, saying an income-contingent loan covering course fees and living costs would be the fairest system. A similar model was proposed to former minister Batt O’Keeffe in 2009 and was the subject of plans in the Department of Education before last year’s election.

College bosses have also called for a structured student fees system as a key to solving the funding gap.

A range of controversial mergers, including an amalgamation of Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin, were recommended by international experts in one of the reports for the HEA, but Mr Quinn has said its proposals went beyond those envisaged in Government policy.