Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 September 2021
444. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the reason for the high increase in college fees in the past 12 months (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44428/21]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, fee levels vary across the institutions, disciplines and mode of delivery. Publically funded Higher Education Institutions are autonomous bodies and are responsible for their own day-to-day management and operational affairs, including the management of academic affairs. They retain the right to determine their own policies and procedures. The level of registration fees and tuition fees to be charged are therefore a matter for the relevant institution to determine in line with its own criteria.
In considering fees, it is important to note that the State currently provides very substantial financial support to undergraduate students in higher education towards the cost of their studies.
Under the Department’s Free Fees Initiative (FFI), the Exchequer provides funding toward the tuition fee costs of eligible undergraduate higher education students. All students eligible for the scheme receive state support whereby the Exchequer pays the cost of tuition fees exclusive of the student contribution. Any proposal to increase EU undergraduate tuition fees rates of eligible courses and charged to eligible students would have a budgetary impact on the exchequer and such an increase would require prior agreement between the sector, HEA, my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. In this regard no such request for an increase was submitted, considered or approved for 2020/2021 and the last agreed increase was in 2008/2009.
In 2020/21 the Exchequer currently contributed over €357m to meeting the tuition fee costs of 146,000 eligible undergraduate students in higher education. In addition, over 65,000 students have all or part of the €3,000 student contribution paid on their behalf under the Student Grant Scheme at a cost of over €190m. This substantial funding support has played a very important role in enabling access to and growth in higher education in Ireland.
I am very much aware of the difficulties facing students and in July I secured Government approval for €105 million for the third level sector to safely reopen in September 2021. The package will include financial support for further and higher education to return on-site safely and in line with public health advice, and additional student supports for students in further and higher education.
€21 million of this funding will be allocated to provide specific extra supports for students including an extra €3m for student mental health, an extra €10m for the Student Assistance Fund which provides financial supports to students experiencing financial difficulties while in college, and €8m for the Mitigating Educational Disadvantage Fund which supports and engages disadvantaged learners.
In general there is a real requirement in these exceptional times to have a responsive approach to student needs wherever possible and it is important to acknowledge that HEIs have to date shown enormous willingness to be responsive in numerous ways. I would encourage all students to engage with their institution to discuss any issues in relation to their course, including fees.
The main support available to assist students with the cost of attending higher education is the Student Grant Scheme. Students can check eligibility and apply for grant supports on www.susi.ie. The Programme for Government contains commitments to, among other things, review SUSI eligibility criteria, adjacency rates and postgraduate grant supports. On foot of these commitments I gave approval to commence a review of the Student Grant Scheme. My Department is overseeing the implementation of the review. It is anticipated that the review will be completed later this year and will inform future priorities regarding the development of student grant policy.
