Local TD Deirdre Clune has called on the Minister for Education, Batt O’Keeffe, to reform higher education not by forcing hard working parents to pay third level fees but by embracing the package of reforms and the new funding system proposed by Fine Gael.

Fine Gael’s Green Paper on Reform of Higher Education (pdf 90KB) has ruled out the introduction of Third Level College fees and instead proposed a new Graduate PRSI contribution scheme that would raise in the region of €500m per year for the sector.

The new scheme would allow for the abolition of college registration fees, which increased from €900 to €1,500 in the October Budget as a system of fees by the backdoor. Instead the new system would see new entrants to college, after graduation, make a contribution through the PRSI system to the value of 30% of the cost of their college education. These funds would be ring fenced for the 3rd level sector.

The main advantage of our system is that it will remove the burden of cost from parents and allow the students to pay for their own education when they have graduated and are earning a wage.

If we want to develop a knowledge based economy, we have to reform the current funding arrangement and the way our higher education sector operates. Fine Gael Education Spokesperson Brian Hayes has focused not just on funding he has also outlined a package of reforms that would modernise our Higher Education Sector. If the Minister for Education’s strategy is to create a new funding model, while not setting out at the same time any reform package for the Sector it will be a lost opportunity.