The devil is in what’s not in the detail

The recent negotiation of a new Programme for Government has students all over the country breathing a sigh of relief. Plans for tuition fees, which would have effectively excluded thousands of students from third level education, have been abandoned by the government after a weekend of intense negotiations with the Green party. But what does this new programme mean for students?

The new programme for government states that the Government will not pursue “any new scheme of student contribution for third level education”, which is a major U-turn in Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe’s policy.

“I welcome the apparent admission by the Government that third level fees would be a block on those who want to receive a higher education,” said Ruairi Quinn TD, Labour spokesperson on education. “This has been the Labour Party position since we abolished fees in 1995.”

Despite the assurances that fees will not be introduced, questions are still being asked. The Government still has high expectations for changes in third level education over the next few years. Without the introduction of tuition fees, another source of funding must be sought. The steep increase in registration fees this year has prompted fears that tuition fees will effectively be introduced through the “back door”, in order to raise funds for the State and for student support services.

In 2002, the registration fee for DCU was €708, which by 2008 was €938 after a series of modest increases. However, the fee for 2009 rose to €1,538 - which still only covers a small portion of the cost of an undergraduate education, which, according to the Higher Education Authority, is around €11,000.

In Trinity College, undergraduate fees increased steadily with the rate of inflation between 2002 and 2007. Between 2007 and 2008, fees rose from €875 to €900. Fees for the current academic year in TCD stand at €1585. And as the economic situation worsens, there are fears that more steep increases will come. Hugh O’Sullivan says that significant rises in registration fees are “the kind of sick political trick that we can see Minister O’Keeffe coming up with.”

University heads are keen to make it clear that the decision is not in their hands. In response to Batt O’Keeffe’s comments on RTE radio that universities could increase tuition fees to raise essential funds, DCU President Ferdinand von Pronzynski said it wasn’t within the power of an Irish university to raise registration fees. Writing on his blog, Diary of a University President, last week, von Pronzynski said: “We get a statement from the HEA which tells us what the charge is going to be; we are not as much as consulted along the way.” He said that comments that suggest universities have a say in the level of registration fees are “strange” and “wholly misleading”.

“There is no guarantee in the new Programme for Government that the old trick of increasing the college registration fee won’t continue,” said Quinn in a statement issued on the October 12 Third Level Fees already exist. They are just disguised as registration fees.”

Also laid out in the new programme is the planned establishment of an single institution to carry out the responsibilities of FETAC (the Further Education and Training Awards Council), HETAC (Higher Education and Training Awards Council) and the NQAI (National Qualifications Authority of Ireland), which has been welcomed by Fine Gael’s spokesman on education, Brian Hayes TD.

“There have been far too many of these institutions hanging around.” He said their co-existence for the last few years was “bizarre” and that merging could “only lead to more efficiency.”

All three institutions were set up under the Qualifications (Education and Training) Act 1999, each with their own roles. FETAC is the national awarding body for all further education and training in Ireland, whereas HETAC has the same role in third level qualifications. NQAI is essentially a supervisory body over the other two institutions, but the implementation of these new proposals will see one organisation perform all of these roles.

“This is an extremely positive step,” said Hugh O’Sullivan, Education Officer of the USI. “The amount of waste and doubling up of resources that can happen in situations like the one that currently exist can spiral out of control. I think it’s a good safety net against that sort of thing from happening. It will also allow USI to more effectively represent its members with a seat on the board of the new organisation.”

However, Ruairi Quinn is more cautious about the move. “I think the merger of FETAC, HETAC and the NQAI won’t have any major repercussions for higher education,” he said. “I think having a single agency could be a good idea but the merger is still nowhere near taking place. Discussions on the merger are still ongoing, a new piece of legislation has yet to be published to allow the merger to proceed, and the savings from having one agency will not amount to very much.”

In a response to the single agency proposal, the National University of Ireland said that a single umbrella body for higher education did not find favour when it was introduced in other EU countries.