A campaign to have third-level postgraduate fees abolished is to be initiated within weeks by a group of student organisations.
A conference on the issue, involving postgraduate student groups from several third-level institutions, will be held at the University of Limerick at the end of this month.
Afterwards, a new organisation will be formed seeking to change the policy of the Department of Education, which has refused to drop fees for postgraduates. The new group will have little connection with existing student bodies.
The students are hoping to build up the kind of campaign that resulted in the previous minister for education, Ms Niamh Bhreathnach, abolishing undergraduate fees in all State-funded third-level institutions.
The Postgraduate Students' Association at the University of Limerick is organising the conference in an attempt to "formulate a national response" to developments in the third-level sector. The group hopes to receive backing from adult education and business organisations. The announcement last week that the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs is to look at adult education provision, including fees, would be a worthwhile exercise only if the issue of fees for postgraduates was also looked at, said Mr Niall Dunphy, president of the University of Limerick's Postgraduate Students' Association.
"Any proposal to abolish fees should, as a matter of urgency, include postgraduate students," he said.
Since undergraduate fees were abolished, postgraduate fees had risen in almost every institution, he added.
"There is no cap on what the colleges can charge undergraduates, who often have no choice but to take on postgraduate study to get employment." On the expert group's discussions, Mr Dunphy said: "Postgraduate students are the forgotten souls of our education system and ignoring them in any proposal to abolish fees would be divisive and completely unacceptable".
Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Education and Science, Mr Willie O'Dea, who has responsibility for adult education, has said a national body is needed to co-ordinate and develop adult education.
Mr O'Dea is preparing a proposal for Cabinet on adult education. He said the problem with adult education was its "unregulated nature" where there was "no co-ordination and no central direction".