UCC defends decision on €65 conferring fee

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE Cork yesterday defended its decision to introduce a €65 conferring fee, saying it was part of an ongoing and widespread cost-cutting exercise designed to deal with a serious reduction in government funding.

A UCC spokesman said the charge was aimed at covering the cost of the 3,000 or so conferrings which take place each year at the university and which last year cost the university €200,000.

The spokesman explained that the bulk of this cost went on catering and printing and he stressed that it was not a profit-making exercise by the university.

He said the university had met with the students’ union to discuss the introduction of a conferring charge of €80 and while the union was not happy about the introduction of such a charge, it had suggested a more limited form of catering and a reduced fee of €65.

However, UCC Students’ Union president Eoin Hayes told RTÉ it considered the fee “exorbitant” and said while the union had suggested that it be reduced it had never agreed that a conferring fee should be introduced.

Incoming students’ union president Keith O’Brien said that the university authorities had failed to provide a breakdown of what the €65 was spent on.