Bring back third level fees, says Trinity chief
THE head of Trinity College Dublin has revealed he believes student fees should be reintroduced.
Patrick Prendergast also says Ireland should f ollow other countries by rolling out a system of student loans or a graduate tax to help students fund their third level education.
The college Provost said on the RTÉ show Aoibhinn & Company yesterday that he believes the reintroduction of third- level fees needs to be examined i f Irish universities are to continue to provide quality education.
Mr Prendergast said: ‘In Ireland we haven’t really faced up to the fact that we need to increase the amount of private funding from individuals into universities.
‘The undergraduate student in Ireland is actually paid by the State, so- called free fees. That’s a very small proportion of the total cost.
‘There are a good proportion [of students] that can afford to pay the tuition fees themselves or their parents to pay. It would be appropriate for them to pay fees.’
He said a tiered system should charge fees for students on the basis of income.
He said: ‘There should be a ramped
‘The funds from the State are reducing’
system so as those on very high incomes pay a fee and those on very low incomes pay no fee and those on medium incomes pay a proportion of the total cost of education.
‘Some loan system should be in place to allow students to borrow if they can’t afford to pay. Many countries have developed this system to finance higher education and I believe we should address this system as well.’
He said universities have to look at gaining more private funding as State funding has fallen under austerity measures.
He said: ‘The funding that comes from government to higher education is reducing.
‘Only 50 per cent of the funding Trinity College gets is Exchequer funding and 50 per cent is from private sources – either post-graduate students paying their fees, or students from outside the European Union paying fees, or commercial activities the university engages in, or philanthropy, or i ndustrial research contracts.’
And he warned that Irish colleges will drop in quality if they are not adequately funded and staffed.
He said: ‘ Either the structure changes or the quality of what we offer goes down. We will find that more or our young people will choose to go to universities aboard in the UK or the US where the quality of higher education provision is higher than what we are able to offer in Ireland.
‘That’s the inevitable consequence if we continue to reduce public funding and stop universities from charging fees. The ratio of students to staff in many Irish universities is more than 20 students per staff member. That’s way out of kilter with international norms. Most uni- versities in the UK would have 15, maybe even 12 students per staff member. We need to expand our universities and not what we are doing at the moment under various austerity measures by reducing the number of lecturers.’
He also said he believes philanthropy will play more of a role in Irish universities in the future.
He said: ‘ Philanthropy is important and is becoming increasingly important to all Irish universities.
‘Great philanthropists like Chuck Feeney and Atlantic Philanthropies have put tens of millions, hundreds of millions into Irish universities to expand them and help improve quality. Many generous people are prepared t o put money i nto universities but only to propel them towards excellence.
‘They are not going to put money into universities to shore up the f unding t hat i s missing f r om government or individual sources.’
The call for fees to be introduced comes after Education Minister Ruairi Quinn axed third-level fees for hundreds of migrant students who have acquired Irish citizenship last week.
Under the current system, students from outside the EU must pay college fees of up to €10,000 per year even if they become Irish citizens during the course of their studies.
Mr Quinn said he was now changing the system so that migrant students who become Irish citizens during third-level education will no longer have to pay fees.
Students will have to prove that they have been living here for three of the past five years to qualify for free fees. However, students who are long-term residents here, but do not have Irish or EU citizenship, will still have to pay fees.
Most undergraduate students attending publicly funded third-level courses in Ireland do not have to pay tuition fees, but students are required to pay a contribution of up to €2,500.