Third-level €3k fee to be cut and student loans ruled out
A student loan system was one of three funding options set out in a 2016 expert report. With Higher Education Minister Simon Harris formally ruling out that option, the taxpayer will have to dig deeper to resolve the €600m annual underfunding of third-level colleges.
College students will be spared tens of thousands of euro in student loans and are likely to see the €3,000 registration fee reduced under plans being developed by the Government.
Higher Education Minister Simon Harris has won Cabinet approval to rule out a student loan scheme to support future funding of the higher education sector, the can reveal.
A student loan system was one of three funding options set out in a 2016 expert report. With Mr Harris formally ruling out that option, the taxpayer will have to dig deeper to resolve the €600m annual underfunding of third-level colleges.
At the Cabinet sub-committee on economic recovery, Mr Harris briefed colleagues on the review on the future funding of third-level education. Now, the committee has agreed with him that student loans should “not be further pursued as a viable option” for a sustainable funding system.
Significantly, it has also been acknowledged that there is a need for an increase in core funding to achieve a sustainable system, which will need to be addressed through the exchequer and through October’s budget. Next month, Mr Harris and Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath will have to agree on proposals on resolving the future funding of higher education.
This will be accompanied by proposals on the cost of third-level for the student. This will be guided by the report on the student support scheme, his spokesperson said.
As part of his plan, Mr Harris is also seeking to introduce reforms to how individual colleges are accountable, a move which is being stiffly resisted by leading professors and academics from Trinity College Dublin (TCD).
They see Mr Harris’s reforms as an attempt to abolish its elected board, in place for 429 years, and see it replaced with one containing outsiders.
“The department wants a standard governance model for all universities,” one senior source told the . “TCD must conform and be brought to heel.”
Clare Austick, president of the Union of Students in Ireland, said: “I welcome the news that student loans are not seen as a viable option, but there is also a need to reduce the student contribution. Education has to be accessible to everyone.
“We strongly argue that a fully publicly funded system is what is needed.”
Released in 2016, the Cassells report offers three different solutions to the funding issues faced by Irish higher education institutions:
- Abolish the student contribution — currently €3,000 per year, the second-highest third-level fee in the EU — and create a predominantly state-funded system;
- Leave the current student contribution charge in place and increase state funding of universities and other third-level institutions;
- Introduce an income-contingent loan system.
After several years of lobbying for a student loan system as the best way to fund higher education, Irish universities reversed that position in 2018.
It is estimated that an additional annual funding of €600m is needed to fund third-level education properly.
That figure will surge to €1bn by 2030 to deliver higher quality outcomes and provide for a growing population.
