Are these the same students who are still waiting on their grants and who avail of charity food-bags?

What is the arrangement in Ireland? In Australian universities there is a system called hecs. To summarise it in an example i get my university fees paid but I have to start paying them back the moment my income reaches a certain threshold. It just comes out of your pay. There is a financial incentive to pay fees yearly but most opt for the hecs scheme. Is there anything similar here in Ireland?

I had to borrow and pay for my college. Im still paying 8 years later. Only 8 k to go. I think its fair to say that students should pay their way. If they can’t do it during college, then pay for their education afterwards. This country is broke and about time we all payed our way. Im currently living on a student town. If they can afford to go out and get pissed most nights, then Im sure they can put away a few quid and pay for their education

Colleges should just buy the pubs, clubs and off-licences surrounding the college. They’d get their money then with interest.

I’m not really sure where I stand on the free third level education front. I am sure I think education should be free for first and second level, but when I was in college doing a computer degree, about 50% of the students had a grant that covered their expenses. By the end of forth year, 75% of the students from first year had dropped out, and done other courses, sometimes two or three times. I am sure they wouldn’t have been so flippant had they had to pay the full brunt of a college education, like in other countries.

Many claim to have trouble paying fees yet a quick look at how their disposable income is funding the latest smartphones in their hands and running quite decent cars in the student car parks would lead you to believe not all of them are as skint as they claim to be.

There is of course genuine individuals to whom rely on grants etc but there are an increasing portion of “won’t pay” rather than “can’t pay”, who are trying their luck that they’ll get away without paying – simply by refusing to do so!

One time I would agree with the UK education system, pay the student loans once you start working after college, I’m sure the government would find better use for those debt collectors than harassing students

Day in day out in this country, common sense dies a little more.

Yep jaime i belive they are…
This country is going backwards again.
What is with irish people thinking students get a free ride..most of the students that cant afford to pay the fees are the most vunerable and not from “affluent” backgrounds like most of the college..bad pr on ucds part and it has a humanities department which is properly fuming over this.colm mc carthy probably has something to do with this knowing his track record..love to hear kathleen lynchs view on this given her portfollio on equality issues in the past.ps. also to the people on comments who say its a free ride for some people need to come up for air!..next they will suggest a stint in the clergys laundry for students who avail of a grant..

I paid my way and worked through Uni but it will cost us all a lot more keeping them on the dole in fairness. Debt collectors should be chasing the real squanderers and thieves….The government and bankers.

A complete waste of money ! You cannot get money from students who simply do not have it !!!! Most students live and educate themselves on very little money .

30 hours in a part time job per month would more than cover this. I fail to see the argument that students do not have the money. Go out and wash cars if you need to. This generation are spoilt. I know I am particularly amaing but I manage I earn 6K pounds during a summer job in 1992 which paid for all my subsistence the following year and my flight to the states the following year to work to get me through college.

I had to borrow and pay for my college. Im still paying 8 years later. Only 8 k to go. I think its fair to say that students should pay their way. If they can’t do it during college, then pay for their education afterwards. This country is broke and about time we all payed our way. Im currently living on a student town. If they can afford to go out and get pissed most nights, then Im sure they can put away a few quid and pay for their education

Debt collectors. ..meter Maids. …. tax collectors. … didn’t Dante create a certain level of hell just for them ?….

What is expected.? A free journey through life. Lovely

College education has become a money generating scam. It used to give
that edge to your cv. Then they got greedy and made up non-courses like “business administration”.

Kenneth agree completely, one of the best comments i have read in a long time.The only way out of poverty is education everyone knows this.It benefits society in every way , the whole point of a tax system should be to distrubute wealth through means of education,infastructure,health, in the fairest way possible to soicety.But that is not happening anymore.

Look what it did in ireland at the start of the boom the state reaped the rewards of a free fees approach.
Record numbers of students graduated who then went on to succeed in their chosen career. Ireland generated serious foriegn interest in its workforce because as a whole it was becoming more educated across the board.

This in turn should create real solid strides in socially changing a nation.
education + inovation=sucess

Education should be free across the board, regardless of your income. The pay given to lecturers, and those who work within the system, should be regulated and reduced, where necessary. Some of the salaries given to librarians are mind blowing. How can we justify paying someone 70,000 a year to shelve books, while we can’t afford to hire teachers? It’s absurd.
Also, some of the answers given on this thread highlight the same closed thinking that has prolonged this economic malaise. Do you really think heaping more debt on families is the solution? That elitist, FG friendly, private enterprise worshipping nonsensical approach has prolonged uncertainty and isolated the voices of working people. The answer must be to push out those who are leeching on the system, right? So that education can be back in the hands of toffee nosed nob jockeys, who can then decide whether people go to college or not, right? I disagree. Education should be free for everyone across the board. It would remove any social stigmas, which come with dividing the system out in the way we have, and would eliminate some of the pretentious stew, which is on display here by levelling the playing field for everyone. How should we pay for it? well, it should be paid for by implementing a more progressive tax system. Everybody should pay for a free education system, which would benefit society, as a whole.

More provocative inflammatory rhetoric from Mr Logue. Another TD (MP) in the waiting. God save us

“The President of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), John Logue, said that those employed to recoup costs were put in place by colleges to “intimidate students into coughing up money they simply do not have.”
In relation to the above comment, is it not a bit reckless of a student to go to 3rd Level in the first place if s/he doesn’t have the funds in place?
Ignore the Grant/BTEA situation. If you can’t budget for the year, then forget about it.
I’m working with the SVDP & have recently come across a student who failed the 3rd Year of his’ Degree. So, he’s repeating. Because he failed it, he doesn’t, rightly, get his’ grant.
He knew, coming back in September, that he had no income, yet proceeded to attend college.
He still hasn’t paid all of his’ fees (not the full whack of €2,250, because he’s only repeating what he failed it’s pro-rata). If he doesn’t get them paid by Mid-May, he won’t be allowed sit his’ exams/get the results.
He also is walking away from accommodation leaving debts/bills behind him that he knows he can’t pay.
Is it okay for him to do this because he’s a student? No, it isn’t, he and other students who engage in such reckless behaviour should pay up what they owe.
If I’d been him, I’d've sat & passed the Autumn Repeats, or, if I’d also failed those, I’d've sat the exams I failed as an External Candidate/Student in May and in the meantime I would’ve endeavoured to get a job or sign on and get rent allowance to give myself an income.