Department looks abroad for fees and loan guidance
- Published: 24 October 2008
Source : Irish Independent
By John Walshe
Fee and loan regimes in Australia, the UK and Scandinavia are being examined by the Department of Education and Science, an Oireachtas committee was told yesterday.
This is being done in preparation for proposals which Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe is planning to bring to Cabinet in about six months time.
Department official Jerome Kelly said this review was quite separate from the forthcoming National Strategy for Higher Education.
The minister intends to bring proposals to Government shortly in relation to the process.
Higher Education Authority officials told the Education and Science Committee that 20-25pc of recurrent funding went on post-graduate education -- there are currently 108,000 undergraduates and 30,000 post-graduates studying full time in higher education.
But HEA chief executive Tom Boland rejected suggestions that post- graduate research was being prioritised over undergraduate education.
He said that significant investment in science research was still relatively new in Irish higher education.
