Madam, – The Hunt report, like the Browne review in the UK, recommends that the State shift more of the growing cost of higher education onto students. This will further widen the participation gap in Irish colleges and universities, between students from higher- and lower-income families.
Ireland already has one of the worst records in the developed world for access to education generally, coming third from bottom among 31 OECD countries in a recent German study. The Hunt report itself puts third-level participation from the top socio-economic group at almost four times that of the bottom group.
But if reaction to the UK’s Browne review was a stormy gale, reaction to Ireland’s Hunt report has been a fluttering breeze.
One reason for this is that the Irish Government, prior to publication of the report last week, had already implemented one of its key recommendations in the latest Budget: an increase in upfront payments by students.
Nonetheless, a more significant development lies ahead. Along with the reintroduction of fees, the report recommends a student loan scheme from which students, it is expected, would need to borrow at least €25,000 during their college career.
The ability to pay later does not mean that large fees would not present a very different prospect for poor students compared to well off counterparts. Research by Ipsos Mori in the UK shows that large student loans deter those from more disadvantaged backgrounds.
If economic necessity is behind the recommendations, where constraints on the public finances make a student contribution the “only realistic option”, then presumably the intention is to unburden future students of their contribution when Ireland is meeting budgetary targets again. I doubt that it is.
The Hunt report’s recommendations are the result of an economics-heavy focus. The report yokes education and research to the economy, and views funding questions through the same narrow lens. Of course, economic concerns are important. But economic concerns need to be balanced against the claims of fairness and equality, even if it sometimes comes at a cost.
There is another argument, one that seems to be going out of fashion lately. IIt is that education is a social good, that like any social good - be it clean air, water, or literacy - education is a benefit to all of society, and consequently should not be the financial responsibility of students and their families. – Yours, etc,