The Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) in Trinity has pledged its support to the student protest over College’s introduction of a €450 flat fee for supplemental exams, saying that “the College faces significant reputational damage”.
Speaking to The University Times, Chair of the IFUT’s Trinity branch Dr John Walsh said “there was no need to bring through charges without agreement and unfortunately the situation exploded”. “Overall the situation has been badly mishandled.”
In a statement, IFUT said that it expressed its “support and solidarity with the campaign”. “IFUT shares with students a commitment to publicly funded higher education and opposes efforts to balance the College deficit through further student charges”, the statement continued.
Walsh said that “College’s deficit should not be managed on the back of the students”.
“We are calling on the College to withdraw the charges and to negotiate a resolution”, said Walsh and offered IFUT’s help in those negotiations should student representatives want it.
He added that the “shortfall from the introducing of modular billing could easily be resolved by putting an additional charge on tickets to the Book of Kells”.
IFUT said that it recognises College’s deficit but that it “should be addressed by a unified campaign, involving higher education institutions, unions and students, to challenge the Government on the scandalous underfunding of higher education”.
“Staff and students have been called upon to bear the brunt of ineffective and misguided government policies over a long period and this shows no sign of changing”, the statement continued. Walsh added: “They need to build a coalition between staff, students and parents to influence government.”
“We are calling on the College administration to resolve this dispute through negotiation with students, exploring revenue generation measures on the commercial side and a renewed campaign for public funding of higher education.”
