TUS student representative says education fees hike is “shameful and unforgivable”
Plans by the Government to effectively increase student fees in the October budget have been branded this week as “shameful, short-sighted and unforgivable” by the deputy president of the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) Students' Union.
Gearoid Folan made his remarks ahead of the publication in the Dail this morning (Wednesday) of a landmark report by the union into the student experience across the seven TUS campsuses in the Midlands and the midwest, including Athlone, which paints a stark picture of students being forced to skip meals, work excessive hours and sleep in overcrowded accommodation.
Entitled No Room for Learning: Accommodation and Cost of Living Report it is based on a survey of over 14% of the full-time student population. Among its key findings are:
* 67.3% of students must work part-time in order to afford their education
* 90.2% of students report feeling frustrated when trying to find accommodation
* 88.5% say working negatively impacts their studies
* 71.9% of students in 'digs' report not having a contract
* 71% of TUS students say they don’t believe the Government cares about students
The report’s findings prompted the TUS Students’ Union to warn that any plans by the Government to increase student fees will devastate already struggling students and further entrench inequality in higher education.
It comes after Minister for Higher Education James Lawless said a three-year cut of €1,000 to student fees would not be retained in the coming budget.
“This isn’t just about numbers — it’s about students choosing between food or rent, education or survival. We’re seeing potential and talent being lost, simply because the cost of staying in college is too high,” said Gearoid Folan.
“Education is a right, not a luxury, and there is no room for learning when there's no room to live.”
The TUS Students' Union body is calling on the Government to reverse any proposal to hike fees, and has also called for an expansion of student grant and cost-of-living supports. It is also seeking the construction of affordable student accommodation, a commitment to establishing a Technological University borrowing framework and a roadmap towards the full abolition of student fees.
The union has said that students are being “priced out of their future” and any plan to increase student fees while rents continue to climb and cost-of-living supports disappear will “push hundreds of students out of higher education”.
The student survey, which is the first survey of its kind to be carried out by the TUS Students' Union, found that the vast majority of students across all its seven campuses (41.5%) live with their parents with the second highest number (17%) living in shared accommodation.
Over 90% of students reported feeling frustrated in their search for rental accommodation, while 60% said they had struggled to find anywhere suitable to live. In response to a question as to whether their landlord had ever unfairly kept their deposit, the students who replied were fairly evenly divided, with 40.8% saying no and 45.5% saying their deposit had been unfairly retained by their landlord. The remaining respondents were first-time renters.
Some 46.5% of the students who took part in the survey were in receipt of SUSI grant support, while a further 42.7% received no State support.
Despite having to work part-time to support their third-level education, and finding it difficult to make ends meet, the vast majority of current TUS students declared themselves happy with their choice to attend a TUS campus. 28.9% of students strongly disagreed with a question asking if they would “reconsider” their decision to attend TUS if they knew how hard it would be to support themselves financially, while only 13.6% strongly agreed with the statement.
Overall dissatisfaction with the Government's attitude to students was at an all-time high among survey respondents, with a mere 2.5% of students strongly agreeing with a statement that the Government cares about students, and a whopping 71% disagreeing.
Today's formal presentation of the TUS Students' Union of 'No Room for Learning: Accommodation and Cost of Living Report' which gets underway at 10am on the Dáil AV Room, will be followed by a Question and Answer session with union representatives and current TUS students.
The union is the representative body for over 14,000 full-time and part-time students across the multi-campus TUS complex which stretches across four counties, and encompasses the former AIT in Athlone.