A small haircut on the recent payout to Anglo-Irish bondholders (a payout that wasn’t even necessary in any case) would have covered this for several years. Why do politicians say one thing to get elected, then do the opposite when they get in? More to the point, why does the electorate let them get away with it?

There is no Back To Education allowance for post-grads either, so all the elements of support are being taken away for anyone not in a great financial situation to want to better themselves and upgrade their education. I’ve been extremely lucky in terms of grant and BTEA stuff, and I will always be grateful for being able to get my degree, (which hopefully I can use as soon as possible!) but there are so many others who for one reason or another fell through the cracks or didn’t qualify for support, and this new measure isn’t going to help anyone who may want to further develop their education and thus improve their chances of better prospects. It’s only going to drive more young, talented, driven and ambitious people out of the country when we need all the energy and education we can get to help turn this country around.

President Higgins spoke of “nurturing the polymath” (transferring skills for betterment of individuals and society). The previous government spoke of the knowledge/smart economy. What is this government’s vision? (assuming it has one). This is a terrible decision.

Perhaps some system should be introduced where a persons prsi contributions in the country can be counted as a factor making them eligible for grants. I know too many mature students who have stayed on the dole/never worked and now have ma’s, degrees you name it all funded by the state. As a person who always worked I find it all taken away just when I could do with it. Seems unfair to people who have paid their dues.

So much for the knowledge economy! This is just so feckin stupid. €50m is peanuts for the increased skills acquired by thousands of people doing postgrads every year. Affording to do an MA is hard enough as it is with the lack of part time jobs these days and virtually everyone doing a postgrad needs to work because the maintenance grant is so low.

The maximum cost of giving someone a grant & paying their fees is around the same as the dole for a year and the majority wouldn’t even be getting the maximum level. The arguments about privileged students benefiting from free fees that is wheeled out in relation to undergrads also does not apply here as it’s all means-tested, so it only benefits young students from poor backgrounds and mature students whose income the previous year was below the threshold.

This is an utterly regressive move and an absolute disgrace to the Labour party, who having abandoned any interest in equality of outcome many decades ago have been constantly bleating on about equality of opportunity through education instead. This just shows what complete crap that’s always been.

I don’t mean to sound flippant or sarcastic about this but am why do I feel like the only person who pays for their college reg fee themselves and is saving up for a postgrad in a part time job during college? I find it next to impossible to get any assistance for my education resulting in me having to work more therefore devoting less time to college

Fine Gael & Labour will seriously damage your Health & Education will you please remember this at the next General Elections

A suicidal decision by a government that promises one thing and does another. Easily solved though. If you get 80% of the students in the country marching, preferably on government buildings,they will reverse it. See it as Occupy Leinster House. If what always happens – lots of support verbally from students but only a handful turn out – it will not deter them. If this was Chile there would be riots in the streets. What is wrong with us? How much more will people take?

Here lads, dya wanna just leave the country altogether? May as well!

The whole “fees issue” started with the Labour party in the first place, when then Education Minister Niamh Bhreathnach abolished 3rd Level tuition fees. While this goal seemed admirable, I believe it only served to make 3rd level education LESS accessible to students from lower income families. Parents from middle class and upper class backgrounds who would traditionally save this money for their children’s college education were now using it to send their kids to fee-paying schools and paying for grinds. This fuelled the “points race” and students from disadvantaged areas could hardly ever dream to compete.

I think it is now fairly reasonable to expect that college students will have to expect fees in some way, shape or form. The “student services charge” (formerly the “Registration fee”) has increased EVERY year – may as well call it “Tuition fees” at this stage! I don’t see any reason why the children of doctors, lawyers and GOVERNMENT MINISTERS etc. can receive even an undergraduate education practically for FREE (€2000 “registration” fee aside), when there are students from lower income familes, socioeconomic disadvantaged areas and students with disabilities who are very under-represented in universities. I believe that means-testing all parents and students who intend doing both undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and ensuring that those who are earning above a certain threshold, say €100,000 a year, have to pay full fees is a much more equitable system.

students protest at education / grant cuts, who’d ever have suspected it…..

on a serious note, a higher level education is a very valuable item both for society and the individual recipient, it is however also very expensive to provide, figuring out to best and most equitable way to do so is the tricky bit, personally i think the student loan repaid when income levels reach a certain amount (allowing for those whom do choose to pursue lower remunerated but valuable to society) is the most equitable of the lot.

I disagree with this attitude that the government should fund post graduate degrees. I’m largely against undergraduate fees, believing that the current system where everyone gets one degree paid for them is fair and republican. But postgraduate is a different story. I’m working to save up to do a Masters at some point in the future. Yes it was tough to find a job, but I found one in the end. I’d have worked abroad if I had to, in order to save up.

As for Patrick Nulty saying that subsidies to fee paying schools should be cut, yes that is the case in an ideal world but in practice many of these schools will then revert to being non fee paying and thus end up costing the Government far more than the present €100m – as demonstrated in the recent Frontline debate on the issue.

Anyone from Young Fine Gael or Labour Youth anything to say on this subject? Hang your heads in shame on your respective political party’s representatives actions …Fool me once , shame on you. Fool me twice , Shame on me!

As one of the single parent lower income families who availed of the undergraduate grant I have to say I was lucky it was there. It paid for a lot my childcare costs while I was studying, as well as the BTEA I was entitled to, between that and the support of my extended family I did pretty well. Lucky me, no wait it was the hard work, I worked pretty bloody hard, I didn’t just nip off to the pub, I did the work and when there was cause for celebration I celebrated. Unexpected from someone who should probably be sponging from the dole in many eyes. Also I managed to save a chunk of my grant to use for a post graduate course.

It was always my plan to specialise by doing an MA & because it’s an extension of my degree so I may be entitled to a postgrad grant. But last year I got a place on a CE Scheme so I deferred my place because it didn’t make sense to turn down a job so that I could study for a job. I took advantage of the free FAS courses & my 10 week course in web design is a great introduction… if I wanted to do a degree in web design but it’s not even recognised outside of FAS. So yeah nothing compared to an actual degree in web design. I also had to endure 5 working days & a 5000 word essay using up a considerable chunk of training allowence to get a distinction in a single FETAC module called ‘challenging behaviour’. What’s that? Well that helps people who want to teach people with learning disabilities which I have no use for but if you’re in FAS you’d better be seen to be involved in something useless to you rather than asking to do something relevant. I knew that I wouldn’t be accepted for a 2nd year in the CE Scheme because apparently “I’m young enough to go & get a real job”.

So now I’m doing a FETAC level 6 night class which is always a useful skill except as a potential employee because let’s be honest in the real world you’d just hire the one with the actual degree. So I reapplied to the MA, assuming unemployment once more & I got offered another place but somehow I managed to convince the FAS area supervisor that I deserve a 2nd year, not entitled, deserve, which is more tricky than you might imagine considering that I’m not allowed to contact her directly. Anyway I’ve got a place on the MA but it’s now 2 years instead of 1 so I have not enough money saved to pay for all of it.

Here’s where we’re at then: I have a degree & I tried to make a living out of it while I applied for an MA, got a place, turned it down in favour of a CE Scheme including FAS training. Availed of FAS training in web design because anything that’s not FETAC recognised is turned down for funding so you can end up doing some pretty useless stuff in order to look worthy for a follow up year on the CE Scheme. I have a degree, am on a fetac 6 night class and money saved for 1 year of my MA.

Do I
A – not do the MA, lose my FAS job because I’m too young & go one the dole? (1st time I’d be on the dole btw)

B- Get a means tested grant to cover the rest of my registration & fees in order to best utilise the education I’d received so far resulting in a job that would allow me to get off welfare altogether and contribute by paying taxes out of my resulting job, resulting in me buying a house and contributing once again to the economy with my income.

C- Take the education that Ireland has paid for and emigrate to a country where I may be eligible as a student or able to find work related to my field until I can, taking with me my child who this country has also supported through lone parents allowance.

D-Take the first job available to me regardless of the time and money put into my education, where I imagine it would be preferable to hire a less qualified person because I am blatantly looking for a career & would rightly take off as soon as a better job appears, which if I do get it would keep me on the poverty line where I would be the first to require aid should the new charges come on line and thus become a strain on the country’s economy once more.

Not all students get the grant

My parents are paying 3 mortgages so i have to pay my own way through

I’ll be taking a €6,000 loan out regardless for my postgrad and will spend my first few years after college paying it back

Can’t say I agree with the government paying so much towards these grants when there is people in the exact same boat, like me, getting nothing

I’m not complaining, just giving my opinion

Excellent read, I’m bookmarking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Excellent blog and outstanding design and style.

http://www.careerguidance.ie/school-leavers/index.php

There should be no cuts what so ever to a person progressing in education. I thought we are trying to create a smart economy. cutting teachers saleries,cutting grants,reintroducing fees. This is driving the economy backwards. This cant go on.

Seriously we are talking about funding for ADULT post-graduate students. Perhaps this will result in a more thoughtful approach to selection of a primary degree course. Aside from medicine, few careers require a post-grad for entry and most provide CPD and part time assisted study packages once in situ. Grow up people. Pay for your own learning. The public have subsidised you enough already.

Just as well there’s nowhere in this country that offers a decent form of the discipline I’m after anyway.

they dont turn out because they are a shower of pampered priveleged brats

Maybe you aren’t a mature student – they seem to get the good deals in terms of college funding whereas the school leavers have to make to with the basic grant.

fas courses are free and promote skills that might actually lead to jobs. why should the taxpayer fund middle class kids to study liberal arts for three years? i studied film and it cost me 30 grand, not a penny of which was paid by the government and rightly so

how exactly did you discern i don’t know the difference? and how did you discern it was 3 years?

Actually it’s worse than I realised, there are two “their own”s in there.

Surely the quote above should read

“There is not even any pretence at fairness in this proposal. A student, no matter how talented, would not be able to continue in education any further than their own their own financial resources would permit.”

rather than

“There is not even any pretence at fairness in this proposal. A student, no matter how talented, would not be able to continue in education any further their own their own financial resources would permit.”

otherwise I’m sincerely hoping that the writer of the press release the quote is coming from isn’t a student in a course where English is a prerequisite.