THE GOVERNMENT was yesterday urged by two leading academics to introduce financial supports for students who could not afford a possible doubling of registration fees to ensure they do not drop out of third-level education.
The call came from the president of University College Cork, Dr Michael Murphy, and president of Cork Institute of Technology, Dr Brendan Murphy, who said it was crucial nobody was forced out of third-level education.
Dr Michael Murphy said he was concerned that increasing the registration fee from €1,500 to €3,000 would lead to people dropping out of third-level education.
“What we have always said is the introduction of cost-sharing between the State and the student should be accompanied by a robust programme to ensure that those who don’t have the means are supported.”
Dr Brendan Murphy said it was inevitable that charges for education would increase as the Government could not continue to spend about €9 billion on education each year when the tax take was approximately €30 billion.
He believed fees should be introduced for everyone who could afford them or else the third-level sector would be forced to reduce the number of students it could accommodate, which would be disastrous for the Irish economy.
Dr Michael Murphy said a student loan system which currently operated in the UK and Australia should be looked at as a means of ensuring continued high levels of participation in third level while reducing the burden on the State.
The presidents were speaking at a conferring ceremony at CIT’s Cork School of Music where 28 students graduated with a joint CIT/UCC degree in architecture, 21 graduated with a bachelor of arts and music, and 16 received masters of arts and music.