Boland, right, was speaking at USI sabbatical officer training in Athlone.
Jack Leahy
News Editor
The Chief Executive of the Higher Education Authority, Tom Boland, has said that the government’s decision to cut postgraduate maintenance grants in the 2011 budget was ‘inconsistent with the national skills policy’.
Speaking at a training event for Union of Students in Ireland-affiliated sabbatical officers in Athlone, Boland said that he did not advise Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn on the issue of postgraduate funding, but said that his personal opinion was that the cut was inconsistent with the government’s stated aim to develop a smart economy.
The postgraduate maintenance grant was scrapped as part of the 2011 budget, with funding relief offered to students whose family income is less than €20,000 per annum. The move was widely condemned by student representatives as a disincentive to study beyond undergraduate level and one which leaves students faced with either unemployment or emigration upon graduation.
Boland made the comment in response to a question from GMIT SU president Joe O’Connor. O’Connor made the point that the relatively minor short-term savings made by the elimination of the grants – estimated by Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin to be €12.6 million – were far outweighed by the long-term economic cost to the state. Boland accepted the point without rebuttal.
Mr. Boland was also asked from the floor about his opinion on the cuts and changes made to the non-adjacent grant. He said that the system was in need of major reform to ensure fairness and to remove arbitrary ‘cliffs’ in relation to the distance a student must live from their institution in order to qualify for assistance.
In a USI press release, president John Logue condemned the initial decision as ‘hastily made’ with ‘little thought’ for its long-term economic ramifications.
‘Tom Boland’s statement on this issue re-affirms what USI has known all along: that the decision to cut the postgraduate maintenance grant was hastily made and with little thought of the long-term consequences for both students and the State.
‘The Union of Students in Ireland condemned the move in the strongest terms and could never understand the rationale behind it. Now it seems we are joined in this incomprehension by the Chief Executive of the HEA.’
Boland was speaking at the event at the invitation of organisers USI. Earlier in the week, a number of USI members were angered by the decision to extend invitations to address attendees to Mary Davis and Mary O’Rourke.
The Higher Education Authority is the statutory planning and development body for higher education and research in Ireland and Boland has held the position of chief executive since 2004.
