Government eventually to raise university charges to €3,000-still insufficient

[patslatt]

They may rank below in the measure of some or all of the ratings but French goverment and industry rank the quality of their educational programmes as the highest in the state. Please provide some consistent view on what you are seeking from our university system. Explicitly, do you think having all undergraduates pay say €12000 fees will see them all rise into the top 100 in the rankings?
And if not then why inflict this demand on all students?

Money talks and bulls*** walks. Universities cost money and if they are underfunded as many are in Ireland,their degrees will lose status and maybe become worth little more than secondary school qualifications in many departments. Why spend three expensive years in third level for that unless you are there for socialising and partying?

[Civil Civilian]

Money talks and bulls*** walks. Universities cost money and if they are underfunded as many are in Ireland,their degrees will lose status and maybe become worth little more than secondary school qualifications in many departments. Why spend three expensive years in third level for that unless you are there for socialising and partying?

Good point but the country has to make a choice. Either have a publicly funded education system that is accessible to all people at low (or no) cost or completely privatise the third level sector. It is morally and economically indefensible to have people paying for public universities and having to pay fees to attend universities in public ownership already. It goes back to the old 'double taxation' argument in that 'if we are paying for this through our income taxes, why are we paying fees as well'. It is telling that Ireland does not have a private university sector. If it did, we could compare. It is also reprehensible that many of the academics who call for the reintroduction of third level fees still insist on keeping the the handouts from central government. In my view, they can either have fees and no government funding or vice versa. There is also no indication that bringing in fees would actually help the standard of education.

[patslatt]

Good point but the country has to make a choice. Either have a publicly funded education system that is accessible to all people at low (or no) cost or completely privatise the third level sector. It is morally and economically indefensible to have people paying for public universities and having to pay fees to attend universities in public ownership already. It goes back to the old 'double taxation' argument in that 'if we are paying for this through our income taxes, why are we paying fees as well'. It is telling that Ireland does not have a private university sector. If it did, we could compare. It is also reprehensible that many of the academics who call for the reintroduction of third level fees still insist on keeping the the handouts from central government. In my view, they can either have fees and no government funding or vice versa. There is also no indication that bringing in fees would actually help the standard of education.

A hybrid institution of legally private universities funded substantially by government and charging substantial fees is perfectly acceptable. Look at the excellent performance of the top public hybrid universities in the top 20 internationally in The Times survey. Fee income counts and taxpayers won't pay for everything.

[patslatt]

For fu*k sake, if you got your way, i wouldn't be able to go to college at all!! But then it doesn't matter about a small peasant farmer's son in Leitrim, does it?

Degrees are available on the internet,such as Hibernia College's teaching diploma. Many top US colleges offer free internet degree programmes. You could also do night school degrees. You could mortgage the farm and work tax free Saudi Arabia or Quatar to pay your way through college.

[Spanner Island]

So the dishonesty continues... the charade of third level fees dressed up as registration fees...

This is the kind of crap that really p!sses people off...

It's contemptible, patronising and condescending stuff...

I'm increasingly disillusioned with the current Government engaging so blatantly in the kind of crap the eFFing traitors were hated for... Keep it up and they'll be as hated in a much shorter time span.

They would do themselves a huge favour if they just scrapped the registration charge bullsh!t and re-introduced the fees which should never have been abolished in the first place with a grant system for those who cannot afford fees.

[Mr. Bumble]

a lying red weasel.... labour are a bunch of power crazy self serving morans..... Berlins way all the way then....

Texal Tom?