[…]push the best and brightest to emigrate. USI fears graduates would be pushed out of the housing market as evidence from New Zealand shows that 51% of banks that received applications from clients with student debt had indicated that student loans were the contributing factor in rejecting finance – with 34% of those likely to be rejected being mortgages. USI is campaigning for the Government to rule out any possible introduction of an income contingent loan scheme in Budget 2018, and to reduce the Student Contribution Charge by a minimum of €250. The union is also calling for an increase […]
[…]education. Third level education is unaffordable and our universities are slipping down on the QS World University Rankings. The loan scheme option put forward in the Cassells report is unsustainable. It will increase emigration, saddle young people with a mortgage-modelled debt and deter mature and part-time students from applying to college. “America’s student loan debt ($1tn+) is greater in value than the combined economies of Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia. In other words, American students owe the combined value of all transactions in those countries in a year. 70% of the 2015 college graduates in the UK are not expected to […]
[…]choices for the future of higher education in Ireland Ireland’s education system could be a world leader, where students ought never be constrained by their ability to afford courses, USI President Lorna Fitzpatrick has told an education sector seminar today. The leader of Ireland’s students was speaking in response to remarks by Minister for Higher and Further Education Simon Harris at the Future Forward event ‘Investing in Education in a Post COVID world’ hosted by the Education Futures Coalition and the Education division of ICTU in which speakers outlined their views for the future of the sector. According to Fitzpatrick, […]
[…]Strategy. It was supposed to be published last July and we are still waiting, and with no word of when it will come. We have no way of measuring what is happening with student accommodation and what stage projects such as this are at. We had to ask a Parliamentary Question to get any information on this project, which we are now told is not progressing because they are essentially searching for money to progress it to tender. That is not good enough when we are in a student accommodation crisis.” TCDSU President, László Molnárfi said: “What is happening with […]
[…]the continuation of the National Student Accommodation Strategy policy of relying on the private market. There are quite a number of reviews and examinations related to the higher education sector detailed in the programme and the USI strongly believes that these need to be undertaken with urgency, and all relevant stakeholders including students, staff and student representatives included in the discussions such as the review of the Back to Education Allowance to ensure it can help those unemployed by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the lack of detail is again seen in the commitment to “ensure that mental health supports are […]
