The cost to universities of providing students with an undergraduate degree can range from €6,000 a year to €26,000, a new report has revealed.
Students enrolling on an undergraduate business degree will cost a university €6,344, while arts students will lead to a fee of €7,035.
This compares with a figure of €10,373 for engineering courses, €9,149 for medicine, €21,294 for dentistry, and €26,604 for veterinary medicine.
The figures, based on data provided to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) by universities, are contained in a document entitled The Challenges Facing Universities, which is due to be published on Monday.
The wide variation in the cost to universities of such courses can largely be explained by the fact that science/engineering courses are generally more equipment- and labour-intensive than arts/business courses.
On medicine courses, training costs are often met by the health service, whereas a large proportion of these costs for veterinary studies are met by the colleges themselves.
Public expenditure on educational institutions here in 2000 was more than in the UK, Japan, the United States and Korea, the report also shows.
Some 79.2 per cent of funding for Irish educational institutions came from public monies in 2000, compared with 67.7 per cent for the UK, 45 per cent in Japan, 34 per cent in the US, and 23 per cent in Korea.
However, it also reveals that other OECD countries spend considerably more on their educational institutions than Ireland.
In countries such as Portugal, Greece, Germany, Norway and Denmark, between 90-100 per cent of funding for these institutions came from public expenditure.
Interestingly, since the introduction of free fees in 1995, the percentage of public funding for universities has risen by almost 10 per cent, although other considerations, such as rising costs, also play a role.
The report features contributions from a number of experts in the education field, including Dr Don Thornhill, chairman of the HEA, Dr Hugh Brady, president of University College Dublin, and Dr Frank Rhodes, chairman of Atlantic Philanthropies and President Emeritus of Cornell University.
The report relates to a workshop on the future of Irish universities which took place in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin last October.