Third-level colleges should be paid for accepting students from poorer backgrounds, a Government advisory group has proposed. Its new report is aimed at making higher education more accessible.
The report also recommends significant increases in third-level grants and a new national body to ensure more disadvantaged, disabled and mature students get college places.
The report - seen by The Irish Times - says "rewarding" colleges financially for admitting these students could be the best way of opening up the third-level sector. It says the idea of paying "incentives" to colleges should be actively considered by the Department of Education.
The idea is being considered in Britain. Last week a House of Commons all-party committee recommended that colleges be paid £2,000 sterling a year for every student admitted from a disadvantaged background. The Irish report does not say how much colleges should get per student. At present colleges can admit poorer students even if they do not have enough CAO points. This is called direct entry, but the numbers involved are very small. One of the aims of the recommendation would be to increase this intake.
The report is to be published soon and the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, has previously stated he will implement its findings.
It was produced by the Action Group on Access to Third-Level Education, chaired by GP Dr Cormac Macnamara.
It says the State has an "unprecedented opportunity" to make universities and other colleges more socially inclusive because, with the number of school-leavers set to fall sharply in the next decade, pressure on colleges will ease. The level of finance available to fund new access initiatives is also high, the report says.
The new body to improve access should be called the National Higher Education Access Office, set up within the Higher Education Authority, the report says. Until now initiatives have been taken by colleges on an individual basis.
This national office will link schools with colleges and draw up an annual report on progress made in improving access. It will also administer the funding to colleges for access projects.
The office will advise the Department on what should be happening at primary and post-primary level to make sure more disadvantaged school-leavers enter third level.
Schools', community groups' and individual colleges' areas will combine to draw up a plan for their area and it will go to the national office. The report states: "There will be a need to ensure that all disadvantaged schools are linked to at least one third-level institution".
A director will head up the office, the report says, and a high-profile figure with a track record in meeting targets should be recruited for five years.
The report sets out several requirements for colleges, including offering more part-time, modular and distance learning courses which are popular with mature students.
The report is highly critical of the level of assistance available for students and the mechanisms for paying out money.
It suggests transferring means testing and grants payment from the Department of Education to the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs. It wants a review of the rule that students who repeat a year have to pay fees, which were abolished in 1994.
It says some mature students find their first year difficult and do not perform well and fail. It says having to pay fees the next year can put off many students.
Another recommendation is that colleges provide "taster courses" for mature students, who can assess whether a course suits them and have a chance to transfer into another course if it does not.