PRESIDENT'S LOG:It's time for politicians to get real on the issue of third-level fees and provide proper funding for higher education, writes FERDINAND VON PRONDZYNSKI

LAST THURSDAY seven Irish university presidents, one chief executive of the Higher Education Authority and one chief executive of the Irish Universities Association went to Leinster House to face the Oireachtas Joint Committee for Education and Science. As soon as we settled into our seats the missiles started flying.

It was clear from the contributions by committee members that they thought we were all rogues. We were manipulating our accounts. We were being dishonest in what we were saying. They were definitely of a mind to install the stocks at the back of Leinster House so they could throw tomatoes at us. But one or two of them at the end said we had been helpful; though I suspect that was just messing with our brains as we left.

So what was this all about? What in their eyes had made seven bookish presidents appear to have all the attractions of a group of investment bankers? Well, maybe the story should be told from the beginning.

In 1996 the rainbow coalition introduced the “student registration charge”, just after abolishing tuition fees in the third-level sector. This was to alleviate potential financial pressures on either the State or universities by requiring students to pay what was initially a small annual sum that would help defray the costs of providing various services such as registration, exams, clubs, etc – but without making any contribution to the cost of tuition.

Things went along merrily until, in 2002, the HEA informed universities that there would be a substantial increase in the charge, but that most of this would be clawed back by a reduction in the core grant. In other words, some of the student registration charge would replace State funding. This was not the result of negotiations with the universities, it was an instruction.

Back then the new charge was €420. So fast forward to the current academic year, and the charge is €1,500. Again, this is where we have got by an annual process in which the HEA, on the minister’s instructions, tells us what the charge is going to be. Back in 1996 the few bob making up the charge clearly didn’t cover much in the way of paying for any services, but by 2009 the amount was quite substantial, so much so that in some international literature Ireland is now classified as having third-level fees.

And by now the original small number of categories which the universities listed as relevant student services were not costly enough to justify the charge, and so universities moved to assessing the cost of all non-tuition services in order to show that the charge still does not cover the cost of these services.

But that was not how some student unions saw it. In early December 2009 the Union of Students in Ireland was called in to the Oireachtas Joint Committee for Education and Science, and USI told the members that horrible things were being done, and that the income from the charge was now being diverted to all sorts of things that were not student services. And so the committee decided to call in all the presidents for some real finger wagging. The presidents were thoughtful, courteous and frank and pointed out that the charge was of course also a fee, albeit a non-tuition fee.

Aha! shouted the committee in unison, they have at last admitted this, suggesting that these recalcitrant offenders had finally decided to fess up while helping the committee with its enquiries.

In reality that’s nonsense. This was no admission nor was it the first time some of us had said this. It was just a statement of fact. But that wasn’t the end. By the following morning Brian Hayes TD was on the radio accusing the presidents of “fundamental collusion”, “cooking the books”, and “scandalous” things. This was so bad, he was “out of outrage”.

So what do I say to all this? Well, I have been pointing out for some time that there is a real problem here, and that the registration charge is being used to obscure an unsatisfactory funding situation. But it is not the universities or their presidents who are doing this. This situation was inevitable from the moment the charge was introduced. It was clear that once the State found itself in difficulty with the public finances it would be tempted to increase the charge and use the increase to reduce the universities’ grants; and that is exactly what has happened.

So what should the universities do? Refuse the increase? Or insist on putting it all into student clubs and societies and take the money out of the teaching budget instead, thereby compromising educational quality or even the ability to deliver it at all?

The whole debate on this is unreal. There is a lot of posturing going on, because nobody wants to admit that the “free fees” system is unsustainable. It is time to look properly at how we fund higher education. And to stop hurling accusations at the universities, who are only doing the best we can in an impossible situation not of our making.

Now is the time for the politicians to show courage. Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe, Brian Hayes (Fine Gael spokesman) and Ruairi Quinn (Labour) have all made positive contributions to the debate in recent times. We need action.

Ferdinand von Prondzynski is president of Dublin City University