John Drennan: Student registration fees to rise for four years in row
Labour TDs were told at a private briefing by Ruairi Quinn last week that they face four years of increases in student registration fees.
And as excessive spending by Ireland's previously cosseted third-level institutions comes under scrutiny on three fronts, many professors may even have to spend more time in the lecture halls as a series of cuts demanded by the troika bite ever more deeply.
But the Sunday Independent has learnt that when it comes to registration fees for third-level education, TDs were told to expect increases "in the region of €500 in 2012 and 2013 and further increases in the subsequent two years''.
Though Mr Quinn has adamantly refused to restore third-level fees, four consecutive years of increases would bring the costs associated with university education in Ireland perilously close to the €3,837 charged in the North.
However, even these increases in student charges are unlikely to resolve the current crisis of funding in Irish third-level education.
Recently the president of UCC, Michael Murphy, warned that charges or fees would have to increase up to €5,000 to be sustainable.
But while it was believed that higher student charges would protect the block exchequer grant colleges receive, the Labour Party was also warned that there may also be cuts in this area of funding too.
The reduction in the grant and increased student numbers will increase the pressure on already overcrowded universities.
- JOHN DRENNAN
Originally published in
