Madam, – As an incoming third-level student, can I express my great disappointment with the announcement that this year’s new college students may be liable for fees from 2010 onward? Would it have been asking too much of the Minister for Education to have made this clear at an earlier date?
Throughout the year, the Minister was quick to assure existing students that they would be safe from any return of fees, but there was very little forthcoming on where 2009 entrants would stand. Now we learn, days after many of us have accepted our places and completed the first stages of registration, that we might be liable for fees although that the current “free fees” arrangement remains in place.
What exact form these potential fees will take and who will be liable remains to be seen, as Batt O’Keeffe is still dithering over the details.
Regardless of where one stands on the fees debate, there should be consensus that pulling the rug out from under students in such a manner is deeply unfair. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Having just read Seán Flynn’s article “New students to be informed of possible fees” (August 20th), I am taken aback by the sheer backwardness of our Government in relation to the issue of third-level fees.
I am a lone parent who has recently attained an honours degree from DIT. I would have been deterred from registering for my course had I been informed upon registration that I might be liable to pay fees the following year and that those fees might or might not be “upfront fees”, charges which I simply would not have been in a position to afford.
I think it is an absolute disgrace that incoming 2009-2010 academic year students are expected to agree upon registration to be liable to fees prior to the Cabinet signing off on the issue. If fees are to be re-introduced, precise information on charges and exactly how those charges are to be imposed should be made available to students prior to registration so that they can make an informed decision as to whether they can afford to be liable and thus afford to register.
To expect students to agree to be liable to as yet unknown charges down the line is akin to asking them to hand over a post- dated blank cheque. – Yours, etc,