Leaks of the government higher education working group’s recommendation package lay to rest a number of false narratives, for better and worse. We have known for months that an income-contingent loan scheme was the only path being seriously considered. We now know how it would be implemented.
Though it comes as little comfort to students, the group’s recommendations carry a refreshing degree of intentional coherence. Over the last half decade, haphazardly reactive policy has left universities embarrassingly underfunded even as students face growing financial burdens and uncertainty. If the proposed loan scheme bridges the gap in higher education funding, which it aims to do by raising both fees and exchequer funding, then it is at least a sufficient improvement over the current situation.
But sufficiency does not make necessity. There is still widespread empirical evidence, particularly within Europe, that free fees are both achievable and desirable. But they need someone to fight for them.
The leak of the working group report so early prior to the general election gives students’ unions a realistic chance to make that fight. The widespread anger being expressed by students deserves a political outlet. For USI, in particular, this opportunity can be a turning point. Hardly known for its radicalism in the first place, the union appeared to regress even further toward the centre this year when it opted for a day of national voter registration instead of its annual protest march.
Whether that decision was prescient or lucky, it resulted in the registration of over 9,000 students in a 24-hour period, adding to the roughly 30,000 registered before last year’s marriage equality referendum. The success of that referendum showed that students are an untapped political force, albeit one that requires far greater motivation to actually show up and vote. If USI and its constituent students’ unions do not do everything in their power to inspire turnout in the general election, then their voter registration efforts will have been wasted.
The higher education funding crisis is the most important student issue Ireland has faced in decades. Before a solution is decided, we must let politicians know that we are listening to what they are saying and that we will take action at the polls to defend our interests. USI shouldn’t worry about making enemies, it shouldn’t worry about staying on the government’s good side – if it doesn’t act now, it’s failing when it’s needed the most.
