Student loans repaid after entering workforce ‘feasible’

Student loans which can be repaid after entering the workforce are “entirely feasible” and would lead to a “substantial increase” in higher education funding.

That is according to Dr Aedín Doris of Maynooth University and Dr Darragh Flannery of the University of Limerick. They were appearing before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and were responding to a research paper by Dr Charles Larkin of Trinity College and Dr Shaen Corbett of DCU who argued against the introduction of an income-contingent loan system (ICLs). They argued that it would cost the exchequer €10bn over 12 years before repayments helped stabilise the system.

Dr Flannery said there were “serious shortcomings” in the methodology used by Dr Larkin and Dr Corbett in their modelling of ICLs, while Dr Doris said an ICL system would result in a major boost to higher education funding without reducing access.