The Oireachtas Education and Skills Committee is lucky. With a world-class report at their fingertips and the complete confidence of the Minister for Education and Skills, they have the complete freedom to reimagine Irish higher education.
It can be changed to anything they want. Both the Minister and the report’s author, Peter Cassells, have given them complete discretion over whatever “hybrid” model they choose to develop as they consider the report. Yet, judging by discussions this week, the committee is more likely to churn out a Frankenstein’s monster than a coherent hybrid suitable for Irish higher education.
While the committee seemed to oppose the introduction of an income-contingent loan scheme, it would be more accurate to say they failed to grasp how such a mechanism might work. It would be unfair to suggest that some members of the committee hadn’t read the report too closely, but much of the meeting was nevertheless reminiscent of students trying to get through a tutorial relying on a “Sparknotes” summary.
Many of the questions made it difficult not to lose faith in the whole process. Asking how long it might take to repay a loan based on an individual’s unique income is not a helpful query. And when members asked for examples of loan schemes that work or don’t work internationally, one could have simply directed them to pages 27-35 of the report.
Prof Nicholas Barr, who helped design the 2006 English loan scheme system, has told this paper that loan schemes require a “big political champion” to sell them. Looking around the committee room, there didn’t seem to be anyone willing to take up that mantle. Yet a publicly funded system would require considerable tax increases. During the meeting, as Cassells spoke, there seemed to be a dawning realisation that the committee were dealing with an issue that required a big, grown-up debate beyond the confines of Leinster House. You could almost hear their hearts racing at the thought.
Chair of the committee, Fiona O’Loughlin, asked Cassells how the value of higher education might be sold to the public. For that, he had no answers. If we do want to hear that argument from the Oireachtas Education and Skills Committee, we shouldn’t hold our breath.
