College ‘will not keep’ €250 extra student fee

Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan has told college bosses they will not be allowed keep the €250 extra that most students must pay next year — and says the Higher Education Authority should not be seeking such "massive increases" for the sector.

She said it would cost €18.5m to adopt HEA chief executive Tom Boland’s suggestion in the Irish Examiner this week that the rise in student contributions — to €3,000 next year — might stay in their colleges instead of the Government reducing their allocation to each institution by that amount.

Instead, the Department of Education said Ms O’Sullivan’s focus for Budget 2015 on keeping up with continuing rises in pupil numbers in schools.