Education minister Ruairí Quinn (left) and Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher (right) launch the bank's new postgraduate loan scheme, with TCD students Conor McGinn and Jade Pollock.
Owen Bennett
Editor
The University Times has learned that a loan scheme for postgraduate students is to be launched in a joint venture by Bank of Ireland and the Department of Education. This development continues BoI’s agressive advance into the third level funding market after last week’s unveiling of “College Finance” for undergraduates.
The new scheme will allow postgraduate students to borrow money at discounted rates from the bank to cover the cost of tuition. High level negotiations on the terms of the deal have been ongoing between the Department of Education and BOI officials for several months. Talks were initiated at the behest of the Minister for Education in an attempt to offset last year’s budgetary cut to the postgraduate maintenance grant.
However, there is rising concern that the new scheme may exacerbate the perceived two tiered nature of higher education. Crucially, this loan is for individual students not families and as such it is only the student’s credit rating which will be looked at to determine eligibility.
Speaking to The University Times, Graduate Students’ Union President Martin McAndrew said that the terms of the scheme are “illogical and counter to the interests of students, Higher Education institutions and the State. It also seems to me that in targeting only students on one or two year degrees, Government is less interested in equitable access to fourth level as it is ensuring the continued income streams provided by taught postgraduates to the Universities and colleges.”
The University Times understands that the Union of Students in Ireland was only informed on Friday last of the impending launch of the scheme. In a statement released today, USI President John Logue said “last year, Minister Quinn made it all but impossible for thousands of Irish students to attain a postgraduate qualification when he removed the postgraduate maintenance grant. Now, the Minister announces this scheme as if it were an adequate substitute for government grants, but this is patently a scheme that will only help students who are already in a comfortable financial state.”
The new loan scheme for postgraduate students will be similar in design to that launched last week by Bank of Ireland for undergraduates. The loan will cover the full cost of tuition fees for students taking one or two year postgraduate courses and be subject to a variable interest rate of 10.8%. Students will be required to begin paying back the loan immediately beginning with interest only repayments for the first 15 months. The full amount must then be paid back within 5 years.
It is unclear whether this new initiative involving the state and the country’s second largest bank represents the first significant step on the road to a fully fledged loan scheme for all students. USI have called on the Minister and the Labour Party to “remember their roots, their founding principles and the vision they once had for education.”
