Jack Leahy | News Editor
The Minister for Education and Skills, Jan O’Sullivan, “[hopes] to achieve the protection of the student grant again as part of the upcoming budget”, she has announced.
Tweeting as part of a scheduled appearance on the “#edchatie” weekly education Twitter conversation, the minister told users that while there was ‘little chance of increasing’ grant entitlements for next year, she was “glad” to see rates protected in Budget 2014.
As part of the live chat, O’Sullivan discussed a wide range of second- and third-level issues – from class sizes to assessment reform – with Twitter users for over an hour.
When asked about the prospect of a reintroduction of full tuition fees, she told one user of a need to “broaden the debate” on third-level funding “wider than the reintroduction of fees”, but was non-responsive when users inquired as to what model she preferred.
Speaking to The University Times earlier this month, the newly appointed minister followed a similar line on the issue of fees, refusing to rule out any funding option in advance of a sectoral funding report due in late 2014.
Speaking to The University Times this evening, President of the Union of Students in Ireland, Laura Harmon, was cautiously optimistic about the minister’s tweets:
“It’s good to hear, but in the absence of a concrete commitment we have to keep fighting hard. I look forward to meeting the minister again next week to discuss student supports and capping the student contribution charge.”
