Sinn Féin councillor Thérèse Ruane has rejected the threat to cut financial supports for postgraduate students and proposed €500 hike in registration fee, insisting this will have a devastating effect on students in the GMIT in Castlebar. Postgraduate grants are also to be withdrawn under the proposals.
Cllr. Ruane said:
“I commend the students of Ireland and the USI for taking to the streets this week and standing up to the Government and its regressive policies. Education is a right, and not a privilege.
“The Government is showing little regard for the difficulties facing many students in accessing third level education, and the Labour Party in particular needs to consider very carefully the promises and categorical commitments it made to students in advance of the election. Students and their families are being put to the pin of their collar; they are under serious pressure with registration fees, and bank loans to support their children’s tuition. If registration fees go up again, many students will be forced out of college onto the dole and many more forced to emigrate”
"These measures fly in the face of building a knowledge economy and will confine third level education to an elite, and in particular, postgraduate study, which is essential to creating employment in research and innovation, to an even more limited elite group.”
