Thousands of graduates will end up leaving Ireland and may never return if a student loan scheme is introduced, an Oireachtas committee heard on Thursday.
An income-contingent loan system – where graduates pay fees when their earnings reach a certain level – is one of a number of options proposed in a Government-commissioned report into the future funding of higher education.
However, Jane Hayes-Nally, president of the Irish Second-Level Students' Union, said many graduates from New Zealand were "too afraid" to return home since it introduced a loan scheme.
“Is this what will happen to me? Too afraid to come home, struggling to make repayments, saddled with debt before I am even 25,” she asked.
The fifth-year secondary school student said income-contingent loans would end up driving students overseas to countries such as Germany where third level is publicly funded.
“My only option could be to enrol in Germany. Right now, no fees apply to international students in Germany, bar a small contribution of €50. So for the class of 2016, willkommen Deutschland.
Radical idea
Other student representative bodies, including the Union of Students of Ireland (USI) and Trinity College Dublin Students' Union, also called on committee members to support a publicly-funded higher-education system.
Annie Hoey, USI president, said a publicly-funded system was not a radical idea and that "fully-free" education was available in Scotland, Scandinavia and Germany.
Universities and employers’ groups, however, were generally supportive of a loan scheme as the most realistic way of providing the kind of funding needed to tackle a “crisis” facing the sector.
Employers’ group Ibec said a publicly-funded system was not economically sustainable or socially desirable.
Tony Donohoe, Ibec's head of education, said an income-contingent loan system was the only "equitable and sustainable" option.
Such a model needed to avoid mistakes made in other countries, he said.
“It would be economically foolish and socially unacceptable to saddle a generation of young people with the scale of debt that we see in the US and will probably see in the UK,” he said.
“Therefore, we need a balanced, fair and sustainable system that combines adequate State investment with an affordable student contribution.”
Structured approach
He said business currently contributed €360 million a year through the National Training Fund – a levy on employers – and individual companies contributing directly to colleges.
Mr Donohoe said employers were willing to play their part through more effective use of the National Training Fund and a structured approach to supporting programmes in areas of skills demand.
The chair of NUI Galway's governing body, former Supreme Court judge Catherine McGuinness, said that while she would like a State-funded system, it was not realistic and student loans seemed "the best solution".
She said the “free fees” system introduced 20 years ago had not led to a significant narrowing in the social divide.
“We can at least see if we can design a system that does not let the State or employers off the hook,” she said.
