When Stephen Kinsella spotted former minister for education Niamh Bhreathnach at an event a few years ago, he made a beeline for her.
“I told her: ‘Thank you. I wouldn’t have gone to college without you’,” recalls Kinsella (44) now a professor of economics at University of Limerick.
“I said she must hear that all the time, but she said, actually, no ... I get the sense that she didn’t hear it enough.”
Kinsella, who sat his Leaving Cert in 1996, was among the first to benefit from the abolition of college fees.
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He wasn’t alone. Tens of thousands of students, now in their 30s and 40s, benefited from “free fees”, a move which dovetailed with the expansion of higher education.
There was opposition: critics argued that it would end up creating a windfall for middle classes, while universities argued that they would lose out on funding.
However, Bhreathnach, who served a single term as minister for education, said she was motivated by a desire to remove one of the last barriers of privilege in Ireland.
The hope was that the policy would lead to more students enrolling in college, better access for the disadvantaged and more degrees leading to more graduates in the workforce – all while maintaining or improving the quality of higher education.
So what happened, exactly? And are there any lessons for policymakers today as political parties weigh up abolishing college fees once again?
Access to higher education is now evenly spread through the socio- economic levels and higher education is now a pivotal component of the social, economic, cultural and civil life of the country
The free fees initiative was announced in February 1995 and phased in over a two-year period: tuition fees were halved for new entrants in 1995/96 and removed from 1996/97 onwards.
Successive governments, however, began to add on additional fees in the 2000s. When the economic downturn hit towards the end of the decade, the administration of the day tried to maintain the illusion of free fees by introducing a separate €1,500 “student contribution charge” in 2009; it soon doubled to €3,000, making Ireland one of the most expensive places to go to college in the EU.
Advocates of the free regime argue that the abolition of fees in 1995 transformed third-level education, making it accessible to large swathes of people who might never have expected to make it to college.
Tom Collins, former professor of education at Maynooth University, says there are parallels between Breathnach’s abolition of college fees with Donogh O’Malley’s move to introduce free second level education in 1996.
“Both initiatives were fundamental to the creation of a universal education system in Ireland, up to and including higher education,” he says.
Collins says the passing of time shows that both initiatives were fundamental to the creation of a society which now has one of the highest rates of third level participation in the world.
The proportion of school leavers going to higher education has climbed from about 40 per cent in the mid-1990s to about 65 per cent today.
“Access to higher education is now evenly spread through the socio- economic levels – notwithstanding significant outstanding challenges with regard to discipline entry – and higher education is now a pivotal component of the social, economic, cultural and civil life of the country as a whole,” he says.
“But perhaps its most important legacy is the way in which universal higher education buttresses and sustains democratic institutions and collective decision-making. The recent political history of the US and the UK shows that a country neglects education at its peril.”
Windfall
However, Dr Kevin Denny, associate professor and head of UCD’s school of economics, has reached a very different conclusion: he says the abolition of fees failed to improve the chances of the poorest children getting to college.
“It provided a windfall gain to many well-off parents,” says Dr Denny, the author of a detailed study on the subject in 2010. “The evidence is that it was a remarkably regressive policy. It didn’t change the fact that the better-off were more likely to go to college.”
The single biggest factor influencing college entry is Leaving Cert points; any policies that do not directly address underperformance at second level are unlikely to have a major impact on the problem, Denny says.
“For young people from a low socio-economic background who wish to progress to university, the dice are firmly loaded against them. They will, on average, perform much worse in school and this is why they are less likely to be successful when it comes to attending university,” he says.
“So, the kid from Ballyfermot doesn’t, typically, get the same points as the kid from Mount Merrion,” he says.
The extent of this disadvantage may have lessened in recent decades as higher education has expanded considerably, Denny notes.
Before free fees, he says, many low income students did not pay fees in any case because they received a means-tested grant covering both tuition costs and a contribution to their living expenses.
“In effect, the reform withdrew the one advantage that low income students had relative to high income students.”
His findings around the class gap in higher education echo more studies from the Higher Education Authority (HEA).
They show that almost all children of higher professionals progress to college; this falls to just a quarter of those from semi-skilled or unskilled families. Affluent students continue to dominate high-points courses such as medicine, finance and engineering.
In Dublin, for example, there are striking differences in participation between postal districts, ranging from more than 90 per cent in Donnybrook to just 17 per cent in Darndale.
Tom Boland, former HEA chief executive, also says free fees simply resulted in a greater transfer of wealth to the more affluent.
“In many case, it meant families were able to invest in private schools or grind schools, to maintain their advantage,” he says.
He notes, however, that squeezed middle income groups – those outside the threshold for grants and who would have to scrimp and save for college – also benefited.
Sinn Féin has pledged to abolish college fees altogether, while Simon Harris has pledged to go further
“It helped those parents who would have made valiant effort to give their children the best start in life ... but they may well have sent their kids to college anyway, because of the growing awareness of the importance of higher education in terms of skills. That was the way the economy was going so there was a pull factor in any case.”
Annual data showing the number of new entrants to higher education in the 1990s and 2000s would seem to back up this point: there was a steady increase in enrolment in the decade before free fees and the decade afterwards; there was no sudden increase after fees were abolished in 1996.
So, if free fees isn’t the only answer to closing the gap, what is?
“There is no one single policy measure that is a silver bullet,” says Dr Cliona Hannon, former director of Trinity Access Programmes. “Educational disadvantage is linked to poverty and all sorts of things that happen outside education.”
The real obstacle for poorer students getting into college for their chosen course, she says, is school attainment. This, she says, is affected by both in-school and out-of-school factors.
What tends to work, she says, is targeted investment in schools which face additional challenges – such as the Deis programme – and building stronger relationships between schools and universities.
These options are showing results: college progression rates from Deis schools have improved significantly over recent years followed increased investment, while the same is true of schools which have forged close connections with colleges.
“These are better places to put money into, rather than giving a break in fees to people like me,” she says.
Today, more than a quarter century since “free fees” were introduced, the issue is back on the political agenda.
The rising cost of living and spiralling rents prompted the Government to reduce the €3,000 registration fee by €1,000 this year.
Sinn Féin has pledged to abolish college fees altogether, while Simon Harris has pledged to go further.
However, the debate over whether “free fees” is socially just and an efficient use of taxpayers’ money remains hotly-contested.
Hannon says she is not opposed to reducing fees, given the financial burden that young people face nowadays.
“It just depends what the purpose of reducing fees is,” she says. “If it to tackle the gap in participation in higher education, it’s not the best decision. A much better one would be to invest in targeted supports like Deis and access programmes for universities. Ireland is comparatively good at this.”
‘Free college fees changed the trajectory of my life’: Daryl Feehely
Daryl Feehely’s father died of cancer when he was 12, leaving his mother to raise two boys on her own.
“She worked hard to make sure we never needed or wanted for anything,” he says.
The abolition of fees, however, made university a real possibility. He finished secondary school in St Flannan’s College in Ennis, Co Clare, in 1999 and secured his CAO first preference course, computer systems, at University of Limerick.
“I remember that getting the points was the most stressful unknown for me about the CAO process. I now realise that it was a privilege not having to worry about paying huge college fees too,” he says.
“If college fees were also in the picture, I don’t think it would have been financially possible for me to choose a four-year degree.”
He says university broadened his horizons, did wonders for his self-confidence and expanded future possibilities: he now runs his own software company and works with clients involved in boosting access to education.
“I suspect so many of my generation have benefited like I have from the decision taken by Niamh Bhreathnach ... it’s amazing to see how one decision can have such a far-reaching and positive impact.”
‘I remember the excitement in our house when this was announced’: Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid
Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid still recalls hearing about the free fees initiative for the first time.
“I remember the excitement in our house when this was announced,” she says. “Sending all of us to university suddenly became a real possibility.”
Nic Dháibhéid sat the Leaving Cert in 2000 at St Peter’s Community School in Passage West, Co Cork. She says education was always important growing up in a home where both parents were teachers.
“But, as the oldest of five children, it would have been a financial strain to send us all to college without free fees,” she says. “Free fees meant other things became possible - including postgraduate degrees. All five of us now have postgraduate qualifications.
She went on to study history and French at UCC, followed by a MA and PhD at Queen’s University Belfast. Dr Nic Dháibhéid is currently senior lecturer in modern history at the University of Sheffield.
“Most of the students I teach graduate with circa stg£50,000 in student loans, and although the repayment system is complicated and it is not a ‘debt’ in some ways, it definitely has changed quite profoundly the way students relate to their time at university,” she says.
‘I wouldn’t have gone to college without Niamh Bhreathnach’: Stephen Kinsella
College always seemed like a remote possibility for Stephen Kinsella until college fees were fully abolished during his Leaving Cert in 1996.
“I’d spent a fair bit of time working in bars and restaurants while in school; 20-30 hours – it was almost full-time,” he says. “So, for me, the idea of going to college was off-putting in a way; having to borrow money for something that didn’t seem that useful.”
As a bright student, he was encouraged to give it a shot. He has never looked back
“I was the first in my family to go to college,” says Kinsella, whose father was a taxi driver and mother worked in a bathroom shop. “I ended up studying computational physics in Trinity, before transferring to study economics. “Today, he is professor of economics at University of Limerick.
“A lof of my success is down to my wife and places like UL giving me a chance ... but I wouldn’t have gone to college without Niamh Bhreathnach,” says Kinsella.
‘It changed everything’: Catriona O’Toole
In her school days, Catriona O’Toole’s dream was to study psychology.
“I didn’t have a great experience at secondary school. My aspirations seemed out of reach, I found it hard to envisage a future for myself and I underperformed,” she says.
She went on to complete a programme in early childhood care and education at Dublin Institute of Technology and worked in a pre-school, but was itching to go to university to delve deeper into the discipline of psychology.
After being accepted on to a psychology course at a university abroad, she soon realised it “wasn’t feasible financially or experientially”.
“Then came Niamh Bhreathnach’s decision! It changed everything. Knowing that I would be able to attend college full-time and work part-time, I began applying to universities, returned to Ireland, complete my undergraduate degree in psychology in Maynooth and I haven’t looked back since,” she says.
She is now associate professor at Maynooth University’s department of education.
“The decision altered the trajectory of my life; it shows the power of education and the positive legacy of a minister with a radical vision,” she says.
