Madam, – According to Niall Fahey (January 18th), “Education . . . should not be the financial responsibility of students and their families”. I disagree. Why should the ordinary taxpayer bear the costs of higher education? Need alone ought to be the key test. Hence equity.
Your correspondent mentions “the claims of fairness and equity”. Yet he himself points to “the participation gap between higher and lower income families”. Low-paid taxpayers are subsidising third-level education for better-off beneficiaries. Yet the less well-off remain under-represented at third-level.
Finally, beneficiaries can expect to earn – at home or abroad – higher incomes over their working lives. It seems fair and just that they contribute accordingly. – Yours, etc,