Anyone who feared that student politics were going to be bland and boring this year can take some comfort in the fact that there are still seeds of conflict out there. In an article published in tomorrow's Trinity News, the acting chairman of the Federation of University Student Unions (FUSU) launches a broadside at the way USI is conducting matters concerning universities in Ireland.

Dave Tighe, who is also the TCD students' union president, claims the new USI "sectoral" structure is counter-productive. Under this structure, all the universities in the Republic, as well as those in the North and two teaching colleges are grouped together. Tighe writes that at least three sectoral groups would be needed to adequately represent their members' interests. He is so critical of the scheme as to say it has not been thought out and is a "public relations stunt to restore faith in a crumbling organisation".

Speaking to Campus Times, Tighe added: "It would be detrimental to both Irish universities and Northern Irish universities to place them in the same sectoral group. We lobby different groups and the financial and housing situation is vastly different."

Under the new structure, Tighe said, the teaching colleges would be "snowballed" under the weight of the universities' agendas. "They have very different issues, such as dealing with a wider variety of grants," he said, adding that the scale of operations is smaller at those colleges.

Instead of adopting this sectoral approach, Tighe said he believes that FUSU could have usefully fill this role in consultation with USI. Paddy Jordan, president of NUI Galway, one of the colleges affiliated to USI as well as being part of FUSU, echoed some of Tighe's comments.

While saying that USI was running very well this year, Jordan said the Republic's universities "have a lot in common in terms of grants and the Universities' Act . . . I think a Southern universities' group would be very valuable," he said.

USI president Philip Madden rejected Tighe's criticisms. "It is interesting that Dave, from an outside perspective is dictating how we organise ourselves," Madden said.

The sectoral structures were not set in stone and could adapt, Madden said. Most notably, there was provision for Northern and teaching subcommittees of the group to meet separately.

"Ultimately USI is an all-Ireland body and in many ways the Northern colleges are more advanced - we can learn from them and they can learn from us."

As for the notion that FUSU could play a role within USI, Madden replied: "If Dave is saying that he wants Trinity to reaffiliate, that's great."

Susan Somers, president of the students' union at Mary Immaculate teacher training college in Limerick, was equally dismissive of the claim that they would be overwhelmed by universities. "I don't think it is a relevant or worthwhile point," she said, pointing, like Madden, to the subcommittee structure. "We are big enough to take care of ourselves."

Geraldine Dolan, overall president of the University of Ulster students' union, said that, despite working with different governments, the challenges faced by the students' unions were largely the same. "We all have common issues like on-campus accommodation and semesterisation, and we can learn from each other as we are dealing with them on a daily basis."