With uncanny timing, given the proposed rise in student contribution fees, the DUP and Sinn Féin have been discussing students from the Republic.
DUP assembly member Phillip Brett submitted a written question at Stormont two weeks ago “to ask the minister for the economy whether her department has any plans to remove students from the Irish Republic from the university student cap”.
Sinn Féin economy minister Caoimhe Archibald, whose remit includes third-level education, responded last week that “improving student mobility remains a priority for me and I am committed to removing barriers for people from here who want to study in the South and vice versa. Removing southern students from the number cap by increasing fees would not support this aim”.
There was a lot going on in this short exchange.
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Undergraduate fees have a statutory maximum across the UK of £9,535 (€11,082) a year. Local students in Northern Ireland pay £4,855 because Stormont has chosen to subsidise the difference. To keep this subsidy under control, Stormont caps the number of places for local students.
Sinn Féin is objecting to higher fees in the south and will almost certainly never agree to them in the north
The cap is a disaster, preventing growth for the sake of a counterproductive giveaway. One-third of students from Northern Ireland who want a local place are unable to get one, forcing them to study in Britain, where they have to pay the maximum fee anyway. They might as well have paid it to stay at home – but then Stormont could not congratulate itself on its generosity.
Students from the Republic are treated as local students throughout the UK under the terms of the Common Travel Area. When studying in Northern Ireland, they apply for capped places and pay the £4,855 (€5,681) fee, which they can borrow from the UK’s government-owned loan company. Students from Britain pay the full UK fee in Northern Ireland and hence are outside the cap. They, and students from abroad, have become the only hope of university expansion in the region.
So when the DUP asked about moving students from the Republic outside the cap, it was opening the door to significantly increasing their numbers.
Sinn Féin’s refusal assumed paying full fees would have the opposite effect, deterring applicants from the Republic.
Of course, there is a constitutional subtext for both parties. More cross-Border students and identical treatment of northern and southern students are matters of great importance to Sinn Féin. The DUP is only interested in southern students as a source of revenue and growth, although this is not a hostile stance – it takes the same view on students from Britain.
When the DUP asked about moving students from the Republic outside the cap, it was opening the door to significantly increasing their numbers
Whatever view anyone takes on this is largely irrelevant in practice, as Britain and the Republic each contribute just 2,000 students, or 3 per cent of total enrolment at Northern Ireland’s universities. Numbers from the south have tripled this decade, but from an absurdly low base.
Perhaps the difference in fees is a fairly small part of the story, especially as it can be borrowed on excellent terms.
Students from further afield might be more attracted to Northern Ireland if its third-level sector was simply larger, offering more choice and suffering from less of a perception of provincialism. Students from the Republic are twice as likely to study in England as in Northern Ireland, despite having to pay twice as much.
As the current system is not working well for anyone, there is little to lose by trying different approaches.
If southern students were moved outside the cap, northern universities would immediately have 2,000 more local places, plus a motivation to grow by increasing their appeal to southern students. Universities currently have no such motivation and put in the effort to match. It is far from certain that raising fees for southern students would cancel this out. Stormont could at least make a serious attempt to model various scenarios.
Full UK fees might not have to be charged to expand certain courses, for example. The Irish Government might provide some assistance, although the €1,000 rise in contribution fees in the Republic suggests the moment to ask may have passed.
The cap is a disaster, preventing growth for the sake of a counterproductive giveaway
Sinn Féin is objecting to higher fees in the south, and will almost certainly never agree to them in the north. If it took a step back from this populist grandstanding, it might see its objectives clash. Identical treatment of northern and southern students may be hampering cross-Border mobility by limiting northern places.
If the number of southern students in the north did increase significantly under the current system, they would be displacing Sinn Féin’s northern constituents, which could prove highly unpopular.
Northern Ireland’s universities want fees for everyone to rise to the UK maximum, rendering the cap unnecessary and unleashing the sector’s growth potential. Stormont is ignoring their increasingly urgent pleas. Southern students could help test the waters for a badly-needed policy that otherwise has little chance of being delivered.
