The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has called for the immediate abolition of the annual student registration fee of €670.
The USI claims the fee is unfair and goes against the Government's policy on equal access to third-level education. The organisation said it would deliver a letter urging the abolition of the fee to each member of the Cabinet today.
Representatives from the USI, DIT Students' Union, UCD Students' Union, Trinity Students' Union and National College of Ireland will deliver the letter to the Minister for Education's office in Dublin at lunchtime.
USI president Mr Ben Archibald said the registration fee is "another example of the current Government introducing student fees by the backdoor".
"The current figure stands at €670, with budget forecasts indicating an increase of €80 in a charge that every student must pay, regardless of their background, financial or otherwise. This is a 89 per cent increase in the last two years and a 400 per cent increase since in was first introduced seven years ago," he said.
"To make matters even worse for the thousands of students forced to pay this charge the maintenance grant has only gone up 2 per cent in the last year."
"Huge increases in student debt as well as an ever-growing number of students who drop out of their courses citing the financial burden as the main reason, makes a mockery of Minister Dempsey's desire to attract more students from lower socio-economic backgrounds into third-level education," Mr Archibald said.
"Today USI will take its opposition directly to the cabinet in a co-ordinated step that will also see local students' unions target their own TDs. This is the first step in a fight that USI will continue throughout the year until the Government removes the registration fee and education becomes a right for all and not a privilege for the few."