Return of college fees 'not on the agenda'
Thursday September 9th 2004
THE Government will not be re-introducing third level fees, it was stressed last night.
A Government spokeswoman said following a Cabinet meeting that the issue of re-introducing fees was not on the agenda and would not be re-examined by Education Minister Noel Dempsey.
Opposition party politicians insisted earlier yesterday that third-level fees must not return, despite an OECD finding that the State cannot meet the financial needs of colleges and students should make a contribution.
However, the Conference of the Heads of Irish Universities (CHIU) said it was time the issue of third-level funding received the "rational deliberation and debate" it deserved.
The OECD's Review of Higher Education Policy in Ireland, requested by Education Minister Noel Dempsey, will be published next week. It proposes that students for first degrees be required to bear some of the costs - and the reintroduction of fees would be one option.
The report states that while Ireland's third-level education system has performed well, it is now at a crossroads and it calls for significant structural changes if new challenges are to be overcome.
It says the education budget is under severe pressure from competing demands in the public and education sectors, where Ireland's expenditure is below the OECD average. Ireland cannot develop a globally competitive third-level education system and research capability without high levels of investment, which will not be possible without some private contribution from students, through fees or other means, it states.
Fine Gael education spokeswoman Olwyn Enright said she was concerned all along that the OECD review would be used to reintroduce fees, and Fine Gael was standing by its decision, when in gGovernment, to abolish them. She said the Government had failed to invest sufficiently in third-level education.
Labour education spokeswoman Jan O'Sullivan said reintroducing fees would close doors rather than open them and insisted that their abolition had allowed a substantial number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds to attend college.
Tuition fees should not be scapegoated for whatever "funding crisis" existed at third level and the way to get the rich to pay for their third-level education was to close tax loopholes.
CHIU said it welcomed the message that Irish universities are underfunded and that they needed increased investment.
Katherine Donnelly
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