Politicians often prefer to talk about solving problems for as long as possible before actually spending the money to solve them. If we follow this cynical line of thought, the government’s higher education funding working group, whose findings are known as the Cassells report, seems like a useful tool for putting off difficult but urgently needed decisions. Never mind that this is the second such report commissioned in the lifetime of the Fine Gael–Labour government, with a HEA report in 2011, which recommended a government-supported loan scheme (something the then-Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn, was staunchly opposed to), being largely ignored.
Peter Cassells, the chair of the working group, told the Royal Irish Academy in September 2015 that the group would deliver its findings by the end of the year, despite “a lot of cynicism” that it would be delayed until after the general election. Call it whatever you want, but the fact remains that, in late February, Fine Gael was still able to avoid committing to a higher education solution in the general election by citing the pending results of the conveniently delayed Cassells report. That report was finally delivered to the outgoing Minister for Education earlier this month, and the shambolic state of national politics hardly inspires confidence that the report’s findings will be prioritised for action.
The only point of agreement, still, is that current levels of higher education funding are woefully unsustainable. A near-final draft of the report, completed in December, would have primarily recommended an income-contingent loan scheme along with fee increases. In a mainly positive development for students, the report has now been significantly changed due to media attention and pushback from members of the group. It now presents three distinct options as “credible and feasible”, including a fully developed free fees proposal that would abolish the student contribution charge.
The growing acceptance of alternative models of higher education funding undoubtedly benefits students, but the continued lack of action does not. Irish universities, educating some of the brightest minds in the world, continue to fundamentally struggle because they rely on funding from politicians who cannot agree on a sustainable funding model. The open-ended conclusions of the Cassells report have done very little to advance political progress toward a solution, despite the urgency with which one is needed.
