The director of one of the country's largest institutes of technology has called for a radical shake-up in funding for third-level education, bringing greater opportunity and more equity into the system.
Cork Institute of Technology director Brendan Murphy said the system would involve the Government providing education credits that would cover the cost of fees for everyone in the State wishing to go to a third-level institution.
The Government would decide globally how many years of education it could afford to fund for third-level entrants - three or four years - and those students would then have their fees covered for that period, said Dr Murphy.
"Ireland's future is that of a knowledge society. For me, this means that each citizen has a right to a third-level education and funding needs to be fair and equitable for each citizen, regardless of whether they are in full-time or part-time study."
Dr Murphy explained that typically an academic year would be covered by 60 credits, and if the State opted to fund education through the system for four years everyone going to a third-level institution in Ireland either full time or part time would get a total of 240 credits.
Dr Murphy said that under the proposed system, credits would not be transferrable.
If somebody changed courses after a year, that first year of credits would be spent, and, similarly, if someone failed and had to repeat a year, they would also not be able to reuse those credits.
"Once you have used up your credits you pay. If we couple this with a proper grant system to cover maintenance costs, then we will be able to give each citizen the same chance of obtaining a third-level education and qualification," he said.
Dr Murphy said such a credit- type system already operates in a number of southern states in the US where it appears to be working well.
The introduction of such a system here would introduce greater equity into the education system, he said.
He was speaking on the first of two days of conferring of degrees on some 3,000 graduates at Cork Institute of Technology. He said it was a landmark event for the institute with the full extension of delegated authority to allow awards up to PhD level.