Students demand action over college funding
Angry students handed thousands of signatures to the Government today in a bid to force ministers to tackle funding problems at the State’s third-level colleges.
The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) converged on Education Minister Mary Hanafin’s department in protest calling on her to immediately reverse cutbacks and abolish the €750 registration fee.
Rory Hearne from the USI said: “The increase in funding for third-level colleges announced at the Budget was just not enough to cover rising costs and chronic underfunding of third-level education.
“The reality for students on the ground is cutbacks in health services and library hours while computers and labs are falling apart.
Mr Hearne said the student leaders had met Ms Hanafin late last year and outlined their concerns about funding.
He said it was a fact that investment in third-level education was continuing to fall well below the amount needed.
“This petition is part of an ongoing campaign. We know there is not going to be an immediate response. This campaign is going to continue and we are not going to give up until we get a result,” he said.
The students said the maintenance grants must also be brought up to social-welfare levels.
Mr Hearne, who handed the bulky petition to a department secretary, said students were now worse off as they have to pay the €750 fee as well as coping with inadequate grants.
The union claimed it was not surprising that a recent study from the Higher Education Authority found there was still a wide, underlying inequality of access to third level with the greatest number of offspring of professionals going on to college.
Mr Hearn said the Government did not provide sufficient student maintenance and financial support and the grant was inadequate to cover the costs of college.
He said Ms Hanafin must fix the funding problems in order to address the inequality of access to third-level education.
