Colleges will not gain from registration hike

Universities will not get a penny of the proposed registration fee increase, according to DCU President Ferdinand von Prondzynski.

He spoke to the College View just hours before the Government’s budget announcement last week stating that college registration fees are expected to rise by two thirds from €900 to €1,500.

“What we’re being told at the moment is that the increase in charges will all be clawed back [by the Government] – we won’t get any benefit from it at all,” said von Prondzynski.

The president also described the government’s involvement in setting the cost of this charge as a “bizarre state of affairs,” and said that none of the universities were consulted about the budget decision.

According to von Prondzynski: “We’ve had no approach at all in relation to this. That’s surprising, as under the agreement that was reached when the registration charge was first introduced, the charge would be actually set by the universities with the agreement of the Government, not by the Government.”

Registration fees were introduced in 1995 for the sole purpose of funding student services in third level institutions. While DCU has followed this spending principle, in recent years the funds generated from the fees have not been adequate to cater for all expenses in this area.

The President said: “The charge is paying for roughly half of what it relates to, so it’s not fully funding the services concerned… I don’t believe the registration charge should be used as a general mechanism for funding higher education or for subsidising the government’s contribution to it – that’s not what it was introduced for.”

It is clear that many Irish universities are in a state of financial crisis.

Despite the fact it is illegal for a university in Ireland to be in debt, University College Dublin has recently announced a cumulative deficit of €15million, while University College Cork has an overall deficit of €13million and the University of Limerick is expecting a deficit of €6million at the end of this academic year.

Despite these financial woes, von Prondzynski is confident that DCU will not follow suit this year, but
cannot be so sure about the future.

“If there is a further round of funding cuts, which at the moment we are being told to expect this time next year, then at this point I cannot see how we can avoid going into financial difficulty,” he said.

However, in the meantime it appears that cutbacks within DCU will be inevitable, but, according to the president: “We [DCU officials] will try not to affect student frontline services to the extent that we can. But at the same time it’s not going to be easy.”

Responding to the budget decision, President of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) Shane Kelly says that registration fees are being “callously and cynically increased” and says last week’s budget speech signalled a “very dark day for education”.

“I’m convinced that none of that money [from the increase] will go to universities, but will be clawed back. I imagine that the Government will take at least 50% of all fees – it is a very cynical and underhanded way to get money,” said Kelly.

“The USI’s view is that third level education is an all essential public service that should be funded through taxes and so fees shouldn’t come into it.”

The USI is expected to hold several meetings with the Department of Education this week, while this Wednesday students from Dublin’s three universities are being asked to march from Trinity College to the Dail in opposition to increased third level education costs.

According to Kelly, a mismanagement of funds is a key reason why several universities are in debt.
“Some universities seem to have extravagances – just looking at the amount their staff spends on first class travel will tell you this,” he said.

On Wednesday the heads of all seven of Ireland’s universities met with Chief Executive of the Irish Universities Association (IUA) Ned Costello to discuss the implications of the registration fee increase.

Speaking after the meeting Costello said: “Even with the increased charge, the 2009 budget represents a cut in core funding in real terms, so without it universities would be faced with an impossible situation.”

Commenting on the increase, UCD President Dr. Hugh Brady said that: “While the budgetary decisions will challenge us all, we appreciate the Minister’s efforts to sustain investment in higher education in challenging circumstances.”

However Labour Spokesman on Education Ruairi Quinn was less pragmatic, stating that the registration charge increase was “clearly the beginning of a return to inequality in third level education”.

“The Government’s decision is a total contradiction to the National Skills Strategy, which envisaged a 17 percent increase in student numbers by 2020”, he added.