NUI Galway hires debt collectors to recoup fees

NUI Galway is continuing a colleges’ trend of hiring debt collectors to recoup unpaid student fees.

The university yesterday confirmed it had hired Clonakilty, Co Cork-based firm, South Western “for the provision of billing and aged debt collection services”.

The move comes against the background of arrears soaring in recent years at the university, jumping from 53 to 979 between 2005/06 and 2011/12.

Almost three-quarters of the outstanding debt was accumulated between 2009 to 2012.

A spokesman for the college said yesterday: “The university has completed a public tendering process and has identified a business processing outsourcing company to assist us with our fee billing and collections process.

“We are working with that preferred supplier to undertake a pilot project to ascertain the feasibility of and the extent to which they could assist us with our fee billing and collection process.”

There are more than 17,000 students studying at NUIG and up to 90% pay their fees on time.

However, NUIG pointed out it “is seeking to improve the efficacy with which aged debt is collected”.

In its tender documentation, the university stated that it “wants to collect overdue debt and to professionalise the approach to the collection of debt by engaging a third party with a proven track record in this regard”.

Furthermore, it stated: “NUIG wants to maximise the amount of overdue debt that it collects from students that have left college without fully graduating or who have dropped out of a course without paying the full financial compensation due.”

Prospective applicants in the tender process were advised they would have to demonstrate an ability to collect debt while accommodating the special needs of the university and deal with people in financial difficulty or arrears effectively and sympathetically.

“The culture of NUIG must be taken into account in engaging with students,” the tender stated, and the successful candidate was told “it will be acting on behalf of NUIG so there is an expectation of sensitivity in dealing with students and their circumstances as well as flexibility on behalf of any outsourced service provider in achieving agreed contractual objectives”.

UCD recently confirmed it hired a debt collection firm to collect outstanding fees. A spokesman said: The need for outsourcing is the result of a lack of internal resources to conduct this service. Therefore, it is expected that a percentage of outstanding monies will be recouped as a result of this process that might otherwise be lost.”

Dublin City University, which employs Legal and Credit Management Services Ltd to collect fees, said 250 former students owed money, and that the use of a third party had, so far, been considered successful.