Retiring NUI Galway president Dr Jim Browne has claimed that Irish students should be paying €6,000 a year in college tuition fees in order to assuage college's "dire" financial situation.
Browne is campaigning for higher fees which would be accompanied by a new scheme of loans which students would start repaying once they reach a certain income threshold after graduation. This could mean that students leaving college will have accrued debts of up to €24,000.
Speaking to the Sunday Independent, Browne argued that the taxpayer should not have to take on the majority of the financial burden in sending students to college:
There is no such thing as 'free fees'; somebody pays - either the taxpayer or the student. It's better in my view if they both contribute.
I think that the funding model we are proposing is reasonable. We rightly aspire to high participation rates in higher education but the taxpayer cannot shoulder the full burden,
Browne argued that during the recession, universities in Ireland had to make drastic cutbacks and that colleges are being punished for their ability to cope with those financial setbacks:
We have had to make cutbacks in important areas - on small group teaching, tutorials, allocations to laboratories and libraries. We are finding it challenging to attract and retain staff.
Over the years, given our ability to bring in international students, our capacity to make do, the creativity and the adaptability of our staff, we have managed. I think now we are being penalised for success.
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We need a decision on the funding of higher education. We must stop kicking the can down the road. The political system, Government and opposition, needs to address the recommendations of the Cassells report which outlined the urgent need for a fee-based system. Our young people should not be short-changed.
