Calls to help part-time students with fees
The Royal Irish Academy recommended earlier this year that fees for 20,000 part-time undergraduate students in higher education should be covered by the same free tuition scheme for full-time students.
In the meantime, academy president Mary Daly suggests raising the assistance available to part-time students who pay undergraduate fees of over €40m a year. They can only claim tax relief for any amount over €1,500 and at the standard 20% income tax rate, even if they pay higher tax rates on some of their income.
Prof Daly asked why those from disadvantaged backgrounds should be denied a route to higher education because of part-time fees.
“When high-quality graduates are urgently needed to increase our graduate workforce this is a potentially shocking waste of talent,” Prof Daly said.
The tax relief has been cut in recent years. It could be applied to amounts over €1,000 in 2011 but this discarded fee amount has since increased by €125 a year to €1,500 and the relief is only available on fees up to €7,000 a year.
The actual tax recoverable on fees of €5,000 or higher has fallen by €100, from 1,200 to €1,110, since 2011.
Prof Daly’s proposal to remove the relief and disregard the €7,000 limit would see the Revenue Commissioners’ rebate on a €10,000 part-time fee increase to €2,000, reducing the net cost to a student from €8,900 to €8,000.
The Department of Education said tuition fees and supports for part-time students are being considered by the expert group on future funding of higher education, chaired by former Irish Congress of Trade Unions boss Peter Cassells. It is also being discussed with the Department of Public Expenditure as part of ongoing contact over education funding.
