The European Students’ Union (ESU), which represents 45 student unions across 38 countries, has adopted a resolution to support the abolition of university fees in a number of countries, including Ireland and the UK.
A number of other countries, including Netherlands, Hungary and Italy, were also included in the resolution, which was jointly proposed by the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), alongside five other national students’ unions that come from countries with the highest tuition fees in Europe, including the UK’s National Union of Students (NUS) and the Dutch Students’ Union.
The adoption of a resolution means that the abolition of fees in these countries will be a statement of the official policy of the board of the ESU. It comes as part of the international “Fund Our Future” campaign, which aims to “unite the global student voice” in favour of government-funded third-level education. The campaign draws support not just from Europe, but from Australian and Pacific bodies, among others.
Speaking to The University Times, Jack Leahy, the USI Vice President for Academic affairs, outlined the significance of the move: “The main things that we would use it for is to demonstrate that the conversation about higher education that’s happening isn’t just isolated to Ireland, it’s a conversation that’s happening the world over.”
The ESU is the umbrella body for national students’ unions in Europe, representing over 15 million students. The union aims to promote the interests of students across social, educational and economic areas, with a particular focus on the EU and the Council of Europe. A failed proposal for USI to disaffiliate from the ESU was brought to USI’s annual congress in 2014 by Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU).
Leahy said the move was an important means of “demonstrating the continental voice” behind the move towards publicly funded education. Commenting on the significance of the support, he said: “You wouldn’t bake the cake with it, but you’d decorate the cake with it.”
Instead, Leahy said, the resolution was a “boost” to the arguments for publicly funded education put forward by USI. He emphasised that the union’s support for the resolution also comes from a need to show “global solidarity among young people” in at a time when progressive and youth issues have felt increasingly under threat.
In October, between 8,000 and 10,000 students, trade union representatives and interest group members marched to protest against the lack of funding that has provided to higher education in recent years. The march came as the Oireachtas Education and Skills Committee considers a report, published in July by the government’s higher education funding working group, that set out three options for a new funding model for higher education – the abolition of the student contribution and the creation of a predominantly state-funded system, the continuation of the current student contribution charge coupled with increased state investment, and the introduction of an income-contingent loan system.
Last month, the Chair of the working group, Peter Cassells, suggested that a “hybrid” of the three options could be possible. USI and TCDSU will present to the Education and Skills Committee on Thursday.
