Universities may need to charge a student registration fee of €1,400 a year if they are to maintain their current level of services, college heads warned yesterday.
The university presidents said the recently-announced cuts in spending had been "disastrous" for research and third-level education in the Republic. They said it was now time for a fundamental review of how universities were funded.
Dr Art Cosgrove, president of UCD, said it was time to stop the pretence of calling the levy a "student services charge" and correctly call it a "fee".
To maintain current services the fee would need to rise from €670 to €1,400, he said. The fee was increased by almost 70 per cent to €670 by the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, during the summer. The move caused great anger among students and parents.
Any further increases would need the sanction of the Minister, it is understood. He is reviewing all student supports at third level, and a report is expected to be published at the end of January.
Dr Cosgrove, who is chairman of the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities (CHIU), said the recent report by the Government's so-called "three wise men" - the Expenditure Review Body - recommended a charge of €1,000.
However, he said, in the absence of fresh Government funds this would not be sufficient. The Government's decision in 1995-96 to abolish fees had resulted in "a totally inadequate investment by the State in universities. As a consequence of the diversion of State funding to fees, student-lecturer ratios and university funding levels are among the worst in the OECD," he said.
A statement from the CHIU expressed disappointment at what it described as a crude and unsophisticated Estimates process "which shattered coherent strategic economic planning by the Government".
It said Mr Dempsey had been "backed into a corner" and had had no alternative but to inflict "disastrous cuts" on higher education.
"The cuts were imposed despite the fact that higher education and research are recognised by informed commentators as areas of key strategic importance to the future of the country."
The statement said more populist and politically sensitive areas of education were given higher priority, while the Government failed to protect the critical areas on which industrial development strategies were based.
"The IDA and Enterprise Ireland see the development of world-class research facilities and communities in Ireland, and a constant supply of top-quality graduates, as vital to our future economic prosperity."
The statement said the Government did not seem to be aware that by cutting back on higher education and research investment it was severely undermining those agencies.