The calm before the storm

Last week I arrived back from my holidays (nowhere fancy...just Kerry. I can't afford fancy at the moment) to a pretty calm place. There were still relatively few students around so I grabbed Ms. Education for a cuppa tea and headed to Javas. Getting a catch up of what was going on in Aoife's world, out of the corner of my I spotted the front of the Irish Independent
"College fees to return and student registration to rise"
Now it won’t come as a surprise to many of you that university is already an expensive place to be, but I thought “Fuck, this one’s going to be a massive battle” The current government has a huge majority of 55. Effectively this means that for any legislation to fail, not only would 55 TDs have to not vote with the government, they would have to actively vote against it. In addition there are plenty of lobby groubs that will argue they need the money the government has more than students do, and I can guarantee that the media will take every opportunity to portray students negatively giving these people a huge advantage. One drunken student pulling up one plant in their own garden will become "Students uproot gardens after booze fuelled rampage". don't give them the ammo. Keep it civil, or it's more and more likely we'll be keeping it for fees!

So “what’s the best we can hope for if they’re gung-ho on this?” Taking to the streets in protest will be necessary, but it may not save us having “fees” (and to be straight about it the “Student Contribution” is fees anyway)

I met with Don on this last week and we had a conversation around the effects of such a plan on our students and on the University. there are concerns for all involved relating to the effect on students.

From a general standpoint the most worrying aspect is that the story printed hints at fees, but says that there won’t be any system for getting the money. That leaves empty spaces colleges all around the country, a bigger funding problem and a protracted economic crisis. Lots of countries have fees, the one thing that they all have in common is that they have a way for students to finance those fees. So even for those in favour of fees, in this case they will have to be against as there is no solution to the funding crisis in the proposals outlined in last Tuesday’s Independent, in fact it creates a deeper crisis in the sector. It will create huge problems for those struggling at the moment, there are those that can afford it, but the percentage is getting slimmer and slimmer.

Shoving more students in and making them make up the shortfall in funding is one thing, but making students pay the entirety is a little on the crazy side when they have no means to pay.

And all this from the people who proclaimed that fees were a no go area for them.

Thanks Ruairí