Higher education minister pledges to do 'a lot more' on financial supports for students

James Lawless is pushing hard to increase targeted supports for students from lower-income families and the squeezed middle. However, it is unlikely a universal cut in student fees will be rolled out.

The higher education minister has promised to do "a lot more" in relation to financial supports for students as part of the upcoming budget.

James Lawless is pushing hard to increase targeted supports for students from lower-income families and the squeezed middle. However, it is unlikely a universal cut in student fees will be rolled out.

Speaking after the publication of the first round of CAO offers, Mr Lawless said it was his intention to make college as affordable as possible so cost was not a barrier to higher education.

"Last year, I increased the maintenance grants, particularly focusing on those students who lived more than 30km away from home, so the ones that had to commute or had to rent accommodation.

I also increased the thresholds so that families on up to €120,000 income are now eligible for Susi support. That's a record high.

"Of course, I intend to do a lot more in student supports this year. 

He said it was "very much" his intention to make college as affordable as possible. 

"But ultimately, like every other minister going into the budget process, we know it's going to be a tough budget this year."

Pressed about criticisms of the current CAO points race, which has been described as a "pressure cooker" for students, Mr Lawless said there was a need to create "wider avenues" into third level education.

He said this would involve introducing more courses that include foundational modules in first year, before students move on to more specialist choices in the second year and beyond.

"I'm aware of a number of organisations that have made calls for reform, and I invite those organisations to correspond with me," Mr Lawless added.

He said the impartiality of the CAO system was something that should be retained.

"It's not so much the CAO process, it's what it's used for afterwards that creates the pressure point. So the actual system of examination, of adjudication and assessment in some cases, and the transparency and independence of it, I think is something we should value.

"Students could benefit from being exposed to a wider range of initial disciplines in their early years in university or in college, and then choose a specialisation at a later stage. That's something I've been actively talking about for a couple of months. I met a number of stakeholders on that."