Free college fees? Should they be scrapped?

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I dont think 1st year should be free as it has the highest amount of drop outs. People out of school can try and get a job for a year and save up. Plus they will be more matured by an extra year and might have more of an idea in what they want to do. If people had to pay for it themselves then they would be more likely not to take it for granted and work harder.

I would say about 40% of my course has already virtually dropped out and a lot of them are just going through the motions, keeping their parents happy etc.

The university i went to gave us incentives to stay in past year one. In year one they gave us a bursary of 300, year 2 they gave us 1000 and year 3 1300

Volvic12 wrote: »

Apologies if this has been sent before but I believe the following should happen:

Fees should not be free. It's simply bad Economics. I 100% understand that it's very easy for me to say Students should pay fees considering I got pretty much free fees when I was in college 5 years ago.

What I propose:
All students should be able to attain interest free loans from the bank / government which have to be paid in full within ten years of receiving the loan.

For example; if Arts course costs €4500 yearly, then students should be entitled to received this amount from Bank / Government to pay for course.
Obviously, richer people will be able to pay for courses straight off and will not require loan.
I understand that the low-middle class families will require these loans so some may say it puts them at a disadvantage - that is a fair point. My reply would be, they are receiving same opportunites to attend college albeit they will have a burden of debt hanging over them for a few years.

Positives:
It would reduce our budget deficit dramatically.
Increased Efficiency - students wouldn't be messing around in college and dropping out after a year. You would find if people are spending their own money, they will in general get their moneys worth.

Interested to hear anyones opinion on this?

Well it wont reduce our budget deficit by much at all. Look at the UK. I went to university in Liverpool so I know what im talking about here. When they brought in fees in the UK it didn't increase efficiency in the Universitys there. At first the fees when they brought them in were only 1000 per year now they are 9000 sterling which any student going into university now would be saddled with 27000 pounds of debt which would take a lifetime to pay back. There is no guarentees of them getting this money back either if a student emmigrates the country and doesnt come back then the goverment never gets the money back.

At the moment Ireland has a brain drain which is very harmful to the economy. I think there should not be fees. Its hard enough to get into college without having to pay fees. Education and skills are our only way out of the mess this country is in.

What the government should be doing is trying to get the ex builders etc who are on the dole back into full time education which will bring unemployment down produce more skilled people and then kick start the economy. When they come out of college there should be graduate programs available which companies can avail of these newly educated people and create jobs. The companies in turn should be given tax and prsi breaks for hiring someone on a scheme like this. It would be a win win for all then. Unemployment goes down means less dole and other benefits paid out.... Unemployed person has a degree, skills, a job and a sense of pride and the company wins also which in turn would get the economy going.

Muir wrote: »

20 years ago my parents couldn't afford to send my older siblings to college. Now they can't afford to help me. So there's never been any system that helps people in a similar situation to my own family.

And mango salsa is correct, the person they quoted could get their parents to claim tax relief. If you pay more than the 2500 registration fee (eg. 2 children in college) then you can claim tax relief.

Well that's a fair point and I wasn't saying the old system was perfect, just I don't accept this idea that scrapping free fees is some attack on the disadvantaged when we'd have free fees for them anyway. Wasn't aware about the €2,500, all of it should be tax deductible to me, it's just a sham way of introducing them if they keep on increasing.

K-9 wrote: »

Well that's a fair point and I wasn't saying the old system was perfect, just I don't accept this idea that scrapping free fees is some attack on the disadvantaged when we'd have free fees for them anyway. Wasn't aware about the €2,500, all of it should be tax deductible to me, it's just a sham way of introducing them if they keep on increasing.

I'm not even against something like a loan system, I actually voted for it when the Students Union asked students to vote on which system we thought would be best. But when in a country that can't even implement a grant system properly (I know people who haven't been paid until finishing college in the summer) how would they ever sort out a loan system.

I think if it's a grant system then it needs to be based on available income and not before considering taxes etc. I know people who get the grant because they live with a step parent who supports them but they don't have to include the income of the step parent. And then people like me who are 50-100 over the limit and get no grant.

& you're right, it is a sham way to introduce them again while still calling them free fees. Sometimes I wonder is it a way to cause conflict, like obviously some people paying tax don't want it to go to students and by saying students get free fees (implying they pay nothing) the people who don't like it get more annoyed. Or people paying a household charge getting annoyed at renters who might not have to pay. Just a divide and conquer sort of thing.

Also, people saying about getting jobs etc. Seriously? There aren't the jobs out there. It is also easier to remain within the education system. And on top of that, if you were going to take a few years out, you could go on the dole and get BTEA and possibly rent allowance, and then get a grant. If you encourage people not to go straight to college, and there are no jobs (which there aren't, 2 years experience to work as a waitress or in a coffee shop and a few hundred to do a barista course if you want to try & get the skills for the job) then they will take a few years out & get it paid for.