The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) today assembled outside Leinster House to protest the student contribution charge and to call for increased funding of the higher education sector in Ireland.
Over a dozen student union leaders stood outside the gates of Leinster House with placards, demonstrating the disparity in fees for Irish students when compared to other European countries.
Speaking to The University Times USI President Lorna FitzPatrick said: “The Cassels report was released back five years ago..we’re still waiting on a sustainable funding model and we’re calling on the minister to act now. I suppose the real message is that the system should be funded through taxation as a publicly funded system –because it’s a social good – and not propped up by students who are filling the gaps.”
“We’re calling on the minister to act swiftly”, she added.
Labour Higher Education spokesperson Senator Annie Hoey told this newspaper: “As former President of the Union of Students in Ireland, I think students have really been let down over the past couple of years. I think in the last year there’s been very little recognition of the trials and tribulations that students have gone through.”
“There is enough of a strain on the student population without having the highest fees in Europe on top of that.”
Hoey also said that the inaction in the higher education sector on this issue was “bananas”.
Speaking to The University Times, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) President Eoin Hand said: “Higher education funding has decreased massively and tuition fees have stayed the same since 2014 at €3,000 per year. Students are sick of it. Students are sick of bearing the brunt.”
Hand also said that every time students go to universities to negotiate funding they are told “it’s government funding that is the main issue”.
“It makes sense to fund higher education. It makes sense to make more accessible universities for our nation. There are multiple benefits to doing this and the fact that we are still having these same conversations over and over again and not seeing any progress and seeing a deterioration in the quality of higher education funding says a lot about the priorities of our government.”
Last year, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris said that registration fees for students are “too high”.
In an interview with Claire Byrne on RTÉ Radio One in August 2020, Harris said: “I’ve been minister for eight weeks and I would like to look at this over the lifetime of the government, obviously we have a budget in October.”
However, in the budget, third-level funding so only modest increases, and the government did not commit to a new funding model.
Meanwhile, in March, the Department of Higher Education launched a public consultation reviewing SUSI, with submissions closing on April 16th.
The terms of reference of the public consultation include reviewing SUSI eligibility criteria, reviewing income thresholds, review of the SUSI maintenance grant, comparison of student supports with other European countries, examination of costs for postgraduate students and determining the real cost of attending higher education in Ireland.
