Third-level costs - Pressure on families must ease

The Irish League of Credit Unions today published its survey into the cost of third-level education in Ireland. This is on top of an earlier survey in 2011.

The survey highlights the challenges posed by educational costs on parents and students, along with the impact of obtaining necessary finances, living away from home, course choice, and job prospects. Almost 44,000 of the 55,300 students due to receive their Leaving Certificate results tomorrow have already applied to the Central Applications Office for a college place. Many of their parents worry about how they are going to afford it.

The credit union body warns that many families are under stress to meet the cost of ensuring their children receive a proper education. Most of the older generations probably remember hearing their parents or grandparents, stressing the importance of completing secondary school. But now the same thing is being stressed about third-level qualifications.

Many young people find it necessary to emigrate for a time. With a proper education, their prospects abroad will be that much better, along with their chance of returning home when the economy picks up. Their experiences abroad could, in such circumstances, have a positive impact on their development.

All responsible parents recognise the need to ensure that their children get the best possible education. College students rely on the support of their parents, who contribute an average of e420 per month for each child in college.

Serious challenges are posed for many families who do not qualify for a grant. The old registration fee, which used to be e900 in 2009, has jumped to e2,500 this year and will go to e3,000 in 2015. This is crazy. The survey concluded that 8% of students will either be unable to go to college, or will have to drop out as a result of the latest rise.

Even those with grants last year were adversely affected by a delay in obtaining the funds. More than half of students (53%) experienced delays, and almost one-third of families (32%) had to sacrifice spending on essential household bills because of the delays.

While many parents use their monthly income to finance their children’s education, nearly as many are using money saved over an average of eight years for the purpose. Others have been taking out loans from a bank or credit union to pay the bills.

It is particularly frightening that 6% of parents are paying the bills by credit cards and a further 2% obtained finance from moneylenders to pay these bills. Ultimately this could mean that the educational costs for those people will become exorbitant.

Financial concerns are also a factor in the decline in numbers of students living away from home while attending college. Almost half (49%) of the students in the 2011 survey were not living at home, but this dropped to 32% in just two years. Of course, many students do not have the choice of living at home while attending college.

For years this country prided itself on our system of education, but this survey highlights serious deficiencies that ought to be addressed without delay.