As Fine Gael waver over loans, the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) should take the chance and call for an immediate decision on funding.
When Peter Cassells, in his funding report for higher education, set out one option as the status quo, it received little attention. The dichotomy of loans and a publicly funded system proved alluring for commentators and activists, and this was where the battle lines would be drawn.
Yet, after this week’s budget, where higher education received a marginal funding increase yet again, it seems clear we overestimated Ireland’s capacity for decisive policy making. “Consensus”, it seems, has become a code word for the status quo.
In five years time, if we continue at the current pace, we can probably guess where higher education will be. The contribution fee will have risen in tandem with state funding, while universities will have long given up hopes of the miracle cure Cassells promised.
The Minister for Education, Richard Bruton, had set out Budget 2018 as the target for the implementation of a new funding model. The fact that no-one noticed or seemed to lament that this target was missed speaks volumes – staff, unions and college management have given up expecting anything from a decision-making process that has delivered impotence instead of consensus.
There is a solution. With Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael both showing unease about the idea of loan schemes, there has never been a better time to demand a decision. If Bruton won’t impose a deadline, USI should. An entire campaign, focused around a decision before the next election, could be a risk – if loans were introduced, USI might never recover face.
But now, with no deadline and no sign of a report from the Oireachtas Education and Skills Committee, affirmative action would re-inject the urgency Ireland’s political leaders found briefly when the Cassells report came out.
Public funding might not be the answer USI get in a year’s time, but more tangible support for students and universities would be a significant victory. Even now, amid a sea of pressing issues, higher education funding threatens to fall down the government’s agenda once more. Leo Varadkar and Fine Gael have shown they are listening – now might be the time to demand an answer.
