The Dearing Report on the future of third-level education in Britain is 1,700 pages long, weighs 6.3 kg and costs £135 from Her Majesty's Stationery Office. A committee of 16, chaired by the civil servant Sir Ron Dearing, worked for 14 months to produce the first major report on British higher education since the Robbins Committee Report 30 years before.

Dearing proposes that every student should pay an annual tuition fee of £1,000 towards the cost of third-level education, a figure which represents 25 per cent of the average cost of tuition for one year. These fees will be applied not only to British undergraduate students from October 1998, but also to the estimated 10,000 Irish undergraduates who currently enjoy free third-level education in British colleges.

Ironically, it is a Labour government which will now have to bring free third-level education for all to an end, a government which looks certain to implement harsher revisions of the system than even Dearing envisaged.

Student maintenance grants are to be abolished in favour of a system of student loans, a system which its critics say will leave graduates struggling with debts of £10,000 or more as soon as they begin their working lives. Given that about 20 per cent of students currently default on their loans, the rate of defaulting is unlikely to be reduced under the new system.

The belief of the British government is that those who can pay should, but that the poorest section of society should not have to pay for third-level education. The £1,000 fee will be applied on a sliding scale: those with a family income in excess of £34,000 will pay the full fee and those earning less than £16,000 will pay nothing, with those in between paying according to their earnings.

By contrast, writing in The Irish Times this week, the former minister for education, Ms Niamh Bhreathnach, defended her decision to eliminate undergraduate fees in this State as part of her government's commitment "to open the gates of all sectors in education to every family".

But Dearing's proposals raise serious questions about the ability of the State to provide adequate third-level funding in the absence of a fee contribution. The possibility now exists that Dearing's fee proposals could provide a blueprint not only for the future of third-level education in Britain but, to a degree, in this State.

"I cannot see, with mass third-level education, how the State can continue to fund all institutions to an international level and pay student fees as well," the president of University College Cork, Dr Michael Mortell, told UCC students last week. "I believe that, in due course, the payment of fees by students will return in some guise."

The issue of forcing students to shoulder some of the cost of third-level education through fees is also under discussion in Germany, and early indications are that the Germans will go down the fee path.

"There is no evidence around the world that the State alone can fund mass third-level education," Dr Mortell said. "If Germany can't afford it, then I don't think we can afford it either. From the State's point of view, third level is an investment, but from the individual's point of view it is also an investment, so you could argue that there should be a shared cost."

That shared cost will become more apparent to students this year, following the decision by the Minister for Education, Mr Micheal Martin, to increase the capitation fee paid by students to cover registration, exams and student services from £150 to £250.

In the absence of fee income from undergraduate courses, colleges have found their main source of autonomous income cut off, a situation Dr Mortell compares to the abolition of rates and the subsequent funding of local authorities from central government.

It is a view shared by the education officer of the Union of Students in Ireland, Mr Malcolm Byrne.

"In an ideal society, the concept of free third-level education is sustainable and it's always an aim we should work towards," he said.

"But real equality of access means more than just charging tuition fees. Just because you don't charge fees doesn't mean that kids from Ballymun or Moylish or Knocknaheeny are going to flood the third-level system. You also have to make sure that those who get to third-level receive the support they need.

"I think that in the next five to 10 years, all funding options will have to be reconsidered and that's just being realistic. If you want to continue to guarantee a high-quality third-level education system, allow expansion of that system and create greater equality of opportunity, then resources will have to come from somewhere."