How much does it take for an idea to enter the mainstream? It’s a question many supporters of free education must frequently ask themselves. Consider this for a second: the heads of every institute of technology in the country support free education, economists have suggested that a loan scheme wouldn’t be financially feasible and the leader of one of the largest parties in the UK wants to introduce free education if his party wins the election.
How much more mainstream, you might think, can an idea get? Yet, for some reason, this idea seems to be treated as a peripheral suggestion, a pipe-dream dreamt up by idealists and student campaigners that will ultimately never be realised. It seems, strangely, impossible to successfully plant the idea of free education in the minds of our ministers and policy makers. It might be hard to find another policy or idea that enjoys so much influential support.
There is currently no party in Ireland that is openly supportive of loan schemes and, while the idea has significant support from university heads, the prominence given to such a system is disproportionate to the real level of support it actually enjoys in Ireland and abroad.
Indeed, it is somewhat disconcerting that it is free education that is treated as radical and overly ambitious, when loan schemes are far from universally accepted as a means of funding higher education. As Jeremy Corbyn’s pledge reflects, the status of loan schemes in the UK is far from as settled as its supporters might like to suggest.
The reason for all this scepticism isn’t at all clear. To repeat a fact that can’t be repeated enough, free education was one of three options included in the report of the government’s higher education funding working group. It was costed, analysed and, while not fully endorsed as the route to follow by the report, it makes clear that, if politicians are willing, it could be a viable solution.
Ireland is not known for its ideological politics and no party seems to oppose free education on principle. Instead, it is hard to avoid the thought that, when listening to politicians discussing the issue, they might be happy to treat free education as a noble goal that we simply failed to reach.
