5th July, 2010

Former UCD student union president, Gary Redmond, took up his post as the new president of the Union of Students in Ireland at the start of the month.

Mr. Redmond, from Arklow in County Wicklow, will guide the national union in campaigning for the rights of its 230,000-strong student membership.

As part of his presidency, Mr. Redmond will sit on the boards of several state agencies.

These included the Higher Education Authority (HEA), the Irish Universities Quality Board (IUQB), the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC), National Qualifications Authority of Ireland (NQAI) and the Irish Higher Education Quality Network (IHEQN).

Former presidents of the USI include Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore, Labour TD Pat Rabbitte, radio presenter, Joe Duffy, and Chief Justice John Murray.

Achievements enjoyed by union over the past academic year include successful campaigning for the prevention of the reintroduction of third level tuition fees in Ireland, and effective campaigning to cap the student registration fee.

USI also campaigned to secure a newly streamlined maintenance grant system for the students of Ireland. This includes the availability of student grant forms online for downloading.

Mr. Redmond now looks forward to adding to the previous successes of the organisation.

He said:

“The 2009/2010 academic year saw huge amounts of suffering for students waiting, in some cases, for over six months to receive their first grant installment. USI fought last year for the implementation of the Student Support Bill, and while this goal eluded the organisation, we did manage to secure a more streamlined Higher Education grant system for the students of Ireland. This included the availability of grant applications forms online. However, there is still room for much improvement within the grant system, including the establishment of a centralised grant authority.

Tackling these huge issues, along with achieving transparency with regards to the spending of the registration fee by colleges, will form a major part of USI's work plan for the coming year. It is critical that the registration fee is used for what it was intended: student services. USI will fight to expose the continued misspending of students’ registration fees into the general budgets of colleges in Ireland.

With almost 450,000 people on the live register, including many graduates, USI aims to lobby the Government to introduce a comprehensive job strategy, including graduate work programmes, to ensure that Ireland can reap the rewards of the money already invested by the State in our graduates.”

Ends.