Charges 'worsen class division in education'

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday August 07, 2002 23:10 by McMean

Third level students are planning further protests against a whopping 69pc increase in student charges.

Although the universities and the Higher Education Authority were
only looking for an increase of 7pc, the additional 62pc increase
was forced on the colleges when the Dublin government slashed
their grants by Euro16m.

Students or their families will now have to make up the
difference.

The higher education budget was due to increase from to O1.2bn to
O1.4bn. College budgets were "finalised" in June on the basis of
a six per cent rise in student fees. But last month the
universities were told that the budgets were being "modified" --
reduced.

The Department of Education has confirmed that the increase in
student service charges will generate an extra O16m which is to
be passed on to the colleges to compensate for the reduced
budget.

Student service charges were introduced in 1995/96 when tuition
fees were abolished. They were intended to cover registration
fees, clubs and societies and services.

The 69pc increase has provoked a furious reaction from the Union
of Students in Ireland, whose president Colm Jordan said that the
charges were originally intended to improve student services.

But the increase this year would simply make up for reductions in
state support for the third level colleges.

Mr Jordan added: "Minister Noel Dempsey would be unwise to think
that this problem will disappear while he is on holidays."

Sinn Fein spokesperson on Education, Sean Crowe TD, speaking at a
Union of Students in ireland press conference yesterday, said the
Dublin government was deepening class divisions in the education
system.

"Free education is a myth. The education system continues to
mirror and maintain social division and exclusion. The government
is now worsening class divisions in education. Children from
disadvantaged backgrounds are still extremely unlikely to reach
university and are more likely to leave school early.

"According to the Higher Education Authority there has been no
significant improvement in the number of school-leavers from
disadvantaged backgrounds reaching university over the past five
years. Of 14,000 students graduating from universities in this
State, only 2.2% come from households headed by an unskilled or
semiskilled worker.

"The abolition of university fees has done nothing to help the
children of the least well off to get into college. They still
cannot get to the starting line because of the prohibitive costs
of going to college. And the decision to increase capitation fees
by 69% will make this situation even more difficult. I am calling
of the Minister to rescind this decision and to address the issue
of equal access to education from pre-school right through to
third level. In the short term the Minister should increase the
student maintenance grant to social welfare levels.

"We also need radical action to control rents in the private
rented sector and to provide student accommodation as high rents
are hitting students especially hard."