THE GOVERNMENT has abandoned plans to double the student registration fee. Instead, students face an increase of €500-€800, bringing total charges to just over €2,000.
Sources confirmed the proposed doubling of the €1,500 student registration charge is “off the agenda”. Negotiations on the precise charge are still continuing between Fianna Fáil and Green Party Ministers in the run-up to the budget.
The revised increase in student charges is set to generate an additional €30 million a year for the sector, whereas a doubling of student charges was projected to generate an extra €65 million.
The lower increase will be seen as a victory for the Green Party and for the Union of Students in Ireland, which has campaigned vigorously against a doubling of charges.
Discussions on €235 million in education cuts are continuing, with Green Party Ministers attempting to block a proposed two-point increase in the average student-teacher ratio at primary level and an increase of 0.5 at second level.
Cuts in the number of special needs assistants (currently at 10,300) and in capitation grants for schools are likely. Cuts in funding for higher education are also expected.
In a memo to senior staff this week, University College Dublin (UCD) president Dr Hugh Brady said he expected a cut of 10 per cent in third-level funding. This would mean a decrease of €100 million.
A reduction of this scale would raise the possibility of a cap on student numbers. However, Government sources expect agreement on an overall cut of about 5 per cent, which would nonetheless create serious difficulties for the colleges.
In practice, this would mean a cut of about €50 million, more than the expected new revenue from increased student charges.
It is also expected that measures to cuts jobs in higher education will continue, despite the predicted surge of 55,000 in student numbers over the next decade.
Government sources say the Employment Control Framework will continue next year. Under the framework, colleges are obliged to reduce staff by 6 per cent in the two years from January 2009 to December 2010. It is expected more than 1,100 jobs in colleges will be lost by the end of this year because of these cuts.
The job losses largely include those on temporary contracts and vacancies which remain unfilled after retirement or other changes.
In his memo, Dr Brady said he expected total UCD funding from the State to be “about €7 million less in the 2010/11 year than we have currently budgeted”.
UCD, he said, would have “minimal staff recruitment” until the new year. He said promotion rounds would remain paused. UCD has total debts of about €12 million.